The case against four men accused of killing a Cape Town woman was postponed yet again due to a backlog at the state’s forensic labs.
|||Cape Town - The case against four men accused of killing a Saldanha Bay mother with a panga has been postponed yet again due to a backlog of cases at the state forensic laboratories.
Marlon van Wyk, 25, Sharif Padayachee, 22, Ricardo Williams, 23, and Jerome Januarie, 28, appeared briefly in the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
The men are accused of murdering Sinodia Schutt, 32, on February 26 by smashing her jaw and slashing her several times with a panga.
They also appeared on a second charge of racketeering, while Van Wyk and Januarie face a third charge of possessing an illegal substance - tik.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Eben van Tonder said forensic tests from DNA found on the clothing of the accused were still outstanding, but that these had been prioritised.
He requested a final postponement.
The men were previously denied bail.
Magistrate Martie Wilson postponed the case to July 30 for further investigation.
Meanwhile outside the court, Rene van Wyk, the mother of one of the accused, listened as the four men shouted from holding cells for her to forgive them.
“Aunty please forgive us.”
The mother, who works with troubled children with drug addictions, said she had forgiven them.
“Obviously I have forgiven them. I don’t know why they are asking me for forgiveness,” she said. “They are children who always came to me for help with their drug addiction. There are several tik awareness projects that I am involved in.”
She added that she thought the men wanted to apologise because her son had also been arrested.
“He was always a tik addict, but he has never committed a violent act before.”
natasha.bezuidenhout@inl.co.za
Cape Argus