Pretoria | Thursday
THE State on Wednesday asked for the conviction of five Noordelikes rugby players charged with murder and attempted murder, arguing that the five had acted with a common purpose.
State prosecutor Annemarie Schutte argued the State had proven the guilt of Riaan Botha, Kobus Joubert, Ben Korff, Francois Velloen and Corne Kloppers on charges of murdering Tshepo Matloha and attempting to murder his two nephews, Alex and Melford Motlokwana in March last year.
Matloha’s body was discovered by police on Botha’s family game farm near Dendron on March 26 last year, but was later removed and thrown into the Arabie Dam. The body was recovered in a severely decomposed state eight days later.
Schutte also asked for the conviction of Botha and Joubert on a charge of defeating the ends of justice and for Botha’s conviction on a charge of damaging property, because he had shot and killed several dogs belonging to poachers.
She said it was clear that Matloha had not died of ”natural causes”.
”If he was not caught, detained and injured, he would not have died. His death was the natural result of the assault on him,” she said.
Schutte argued that there was ”overwhelming” evidence against Botha, who had according to evidence played a leading role. Even if the evidence of State witness Louis Strydom was rejected, there was still enough evidence from his co-accused to show that Botha had assaulted Matloha and fired shots at the Motlokwanas, she said.
Strydom testified he had seen Botha hitting Matloha repeatedly in the face with a rifle butt and kicking the deceased. He had also seen Korff jumping on the deceased.
Botha’s advocate, Bert Bam SC, argued that his client had acted within his rights when he arrested Matloha, who was poaching on his farm.
He said the court had to accept that there were two different camps before it, with Botha on the one side and the rest on the opposing side. It was clear that the other accused had decided to blame Botha for everything.
Bam severely criticised the State for withdrawing all charges against four of Botha’s former co-accused, but not calling them as witnesses.
”They were clearly on the scene and must have seen what happened, yet were not called as witnesses. We don’t know what happened. The court should make a negative inference against the State,” he said.
Bam said it was a pity the incident had occurred resulting in someone’s death, but argued that this did not mean that the court should find that Botha was responsible for Matloha’s death.
He admitted Botha had made a mistake by removing the body from the scene the next day, but said it did not make him guilty of murder.
He was ”only human”, and must have panicked when he found a body on his farm, but this did not mean that he had reconciled himself with Matloha’s death, Bam said.
Judge President Bernard Ngoepe criticised Bam for arguing that Matloha might have feinted when he lay still after the apparent assault ”because he was surrounded by eleven rugby players”.
”That is the most insensitive evidence I have yet heard. To say that the deceased was just shamming because he was afraid of 11 rugby players around him is ridiculous. It’s preposterous,” the Judge said.
Bam conceded that if the court accepted the state’s evidence that Botha had deliberately repeatedly stepped onto Matloha’s head and repeatedly hit him in the face with a rifle butt, it would amount to murderous intent.
He nevertheless urged the court to reject the evidence and to accept Botha’s claim that he had not severely assaulted Matloha and had not foreseen his death.
The trial continues. – Sapa