A Pretoria magistrate on Friday denied bail to the security guard accused of murdering city dancer Estee van Rensburg.
It also emerged on Friday that the guard, Aaron Mashishi, will go on trial in the Pretoria High Court on October 20.
According to an indictment handed to Mashishi’s lawyer on Friday, the 26-year-old is being charged with murder, robbery with aggravated circumstances and two counts of theft.
The indictment said Mashishi killed Van Rensburg on March 25 this year when he entered her parents’ home in Faerie Glen and took a Toyota Tazz, a television set and a DVD recorder.
Mashishi was also found in possession of her bank card, and the pin code to her bank account, which he had stored on his cellphone.
He is accused of withdrawing money from her bank account at various branches from March 26.
Taking the stand on Friday in the bail application, investigating officer Inspector Benjamin Mwanza told the court that after Van Rensburg’s mother told them someone was making the withdrawals, police put an additional R4 000 in Van Rensburg’s account which Mashishi also withdrew.
Mwanza said the police had photographs from banks showing Mashishi withdrawing the money.
”There is evidence available placing the accused at the scene of the crime,” he said.
When he was arrested on April 1 at his workplace he was found in possession of her bank card and about R1 000 believed to have been taken from her account.
However in an affidavit read out in court by his lawyer, Mashishi pleaded not guilty to the murder and said a man named Ndoda took his work pistol and shot Van Rensburg.
”I didn’t kill her,” he said in the document.
Prosecutor Adam Mputla opposed bail, saying that the state had a ”watertight” case against the guard.
Mashishi’s lawyer Samuel Mogoaneng argued that his client should be released on bail and confined to his parents’ home in Makapanstad in North West.
The magistrate denied bail, saying Mashishi had failed to show reasons why he should be released. – Sapa