William Kekana was found guilty in the Temba Circuit Court on Monday on all 14 charges relating to the hijacking, abduction, murder and rape of Janine Drennan and members of her family.
Judge Monica Leeuw described Kekana as a ”pathological liar” who tried to blame his now-dead accomplice, Charles Fido Baloyi.
Kekana and Baloyi kidnapped Janine Drennan (24), her one-year-old daughter Kayla and Kayla’s grandmother, Hester Rawstone, on July 31 2003 from Arcadia in Pretoria. They then kidnapped a 17-year-old girl at Stinkwater.
Drennan and the girl were raped and all the victims were shot. Only the 17-year-old survived.
Baloyi was shot dead at the time of Kekana’s arrest.
Leeuw said Kekana was an unreliable witness.
”The accused played a prominent role if not a leading or equal role in committing the offences,” she said.
Drennan’s family wept silently as they listened for three hours as Leeuw summed up Kekana’s testimony and found him guilty. The family attended the trial for the first time since it began in June.
During the trial in June, Kekana, who pleaded guilty to 10 of the 14 charges against him, admitted the abductions, the rapes and the attempted murder of the 17-year-old, but denied the actual murders.
The court heard in June how Baloyi had shot Rawstone through the neck and threw her out of the car on the Heilbron road because she had answered a cellphone.
Kekana told the court that he had feared Baloyi and that he had been forced to commit the crimes. He told the court ”everybody feared death”.
But state advocate Dewald Reynierse argued they had acted with common purpose and Kekana could have left Baloyi and even prevented the crimes had he wished to.
Kekana described how he and Baloyi, after abducting the family, proceeded to Soshanguve where they visited Baloyi’s sister. She called the police after she saw Drennan and Kayla in the back seat of the car and became suspicious.
After the short visit Kekana and Baloyi drove to Stinkwater where they kidnapped a 17-year-old walking down the road with her boyfriend.
Kekana told the court in June they had kidnapped the girl because Baloyi wanted to rape Drennan but did not want to rape a woman on his own. He said Baloyi told him to take the girl so that he could rape the girl while Baloyi raped Drennan.
Reynierse argued that both victims were raped twice — once by each accused.
The court heard how Drennan and the 17-year-old were raped and how Drennan was shot multiple times. A coroner’s report said Drennan’s body had 14 bullet wounds.
Kayla was shot once in the head and once in the chest. The 17-year-old was shot in the head but survived.
The 17-year-old in her testimony said both accused had opened fire on Drennan after the rape ”until she fell to the ground silent”.
The autopsy found two different types of bullets in Drennan’s body — 9mm and .22.
Appearing in court on Monday, Kekana appeared relaxed. He was wearing shackles and an electric anti-escape belt.
Heavily armed police kept close watch as Leeuw re-read the evidence before the court.
The case has been postponed to Tuesday for sentencing. Leeuw said she would take into consideration Kekana’s previous crimes. He has already been sentenced to life and 38 years for the murder of a Brits electrician, Jacobus Geldenhuys, two weeks before the family abduction. — Sapa