“This was the cruellest murder. She has such beautiful children. What happened just gives me the chills.”
|||Cape Town - Four men accused of slashing a Saldanha mother to death abandoned their bail application in court on Thursday.
Marlon van Wyk, 25, Sharif Padayachee, 22, Ricardo Williams, 23, and Jerome Januarie, 28, appeared briefly in the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court accused of murdering Sinodia Schutt, 32, on February 26 by smashing her jaw and slashing her with a panga several times.
Prosecutor Eben van Tonder told the court they were awaiting DNA test results.
The court was told all four men would apply for bail later.
Residents cheered inside court when they heard the men would not apply for bail this week.
Outside court, residents gathered to display their anger at the savage murder. Protesters carried posters “Saldanha says enough is enough”, “Geen borgtog” (no bail) and “Stop geweld” (stop violence).
Deonnie Cloete, one of the protesters and chairwoman of the community police forum, said this was the first time such a gruesome murder had taken place on the West Coast.
“This was the cruellest murder. She has such beautiful children. What happened just gives me the chills.”
She added that drugs such as cocaine and tik had become a large problem in the area and a contributor to domestic violence.
Chrissie Schutt, Sinodia’s mother, said her daughter’s killing had hardened her.
“They are worse than monsters.” Padayachee used to live with Sinodia and she was struggling for more than a year to get him out of her house”, she claimed.
Her daughter’s house had previously been petrol-bombed.
“I’m not afraid of them,” Schutt said defiantly.
Magistrate Martie Wilson postponed the case to May 15 for further investigation.
natasha.bezuidenhout@inl.co.za
Cape Argus