‘They deserve life sentences,’ witness testifies at Coligny murder trial

A witness who took the stand during sentencing proceedings of two farm workers convicted of the murder of a Coligny teenager told the North West High Court on Monday the two men deserved life sentences.

"You see the two accused [Pieter Doorewaard and Phillip Schutte], their families can still go visit them, talk to them, hug them, and see them and one day they might even be forgiven … but the family of [Matlhomola] Mosweu will never hug or talk to their son.

"They [Doorewaard and Schutte] deserve what they deserve. If it was in the old days, I would have said they must be hanged, but for now life sentence will do," Stanley Mnyakama told the court.

Mnyakama, a local primary school principal in Coligny, was testifying before a packed gallery on Monday.

Doorewaard and Schutte were convicted in October 2018 of murdering 16-year-old    Matlhomola Mosweu, an alleged sunflower seed thief. They were also found guilty of his kidnapping, intimidation, theft and pointing a firearm, after a lengthy trial.

Mosweu was believed to have been thrown out of a moving bakkie on April 20 2017.

Mnyakama said the community of Coligny was "highly hurt" by this incident.  He said the incident had been reported to him on a Sunday. When no arrests were reported, he had contacted a police officer to attend to the matter.

He said community members had started to mobilise on the same Sunday.

The next day, with no arrests made, the mobilisation of the community had continued, including taking children out of schools. Community leaders had gone to the police station to query if any arrests had been made, and had later moved into town and looted and damaged several shops.

Mnyakama said he had seen some farmers gathering in town and told himself "these ones are going to cause a mess for Coligny".

He said what had made matters worse was Doorewaad and Schutte being granted bail following their arrests. Houses of several white community members were burned down in the wake of that decision, and foreign-owned shops were looted.

He said he was extremely scared of what had happened in Coligny.

He said tension between white people and black people was evident in the town.

"I was sad. I said if one person was shot by a white farmer, this town would be destroyed," he said.

State prosecutor Moeketsi Moeketsi asked Mnyakama what race relations were like in Coligny.

"Before Mosweu’s killing the community could tolerate each other, but after the incident black people said, 'This far and no more.'

"The community we live in now, we are suspicious of each other."

During cross-examination, advocate Cecile Zwiegelaar, acting for Doorewaard, asked Mnyakama if a police statement had been taken from a witness to the incident before he had heard about it.

"If there was any statement taken, someone would have been arrested, but it shows it was not done," he answered.

He said the parents of the young boy had also not yet known about what had happened to their child.

He had moved around town with a photograph he had received from a warrant officer to track them down. It took him a week to track down Mosweu’s family. He said that when he went to a farm a little girl had identified the boy in the photograph.

He had found the father at a Zion church and when he had shown him the photograph, the father was devastated.

Zwiegelaar asked what Mnyakama's personal attitude to racial tolerance was.

"It depends from person to person. Personally, I feel South Africa needs everyone, but it depends on your attitude towards me," he said.

He said he compared the country to a piano.

"You can play the black keys, but won't get the melody, you can play the white keys, you won't get the melody - but if you play them together, you will enjoy the music."

Zwiegelaar asked what the current situation in Coligny was.

Mnyakama said the situation in town had calmed down, but that would depend on what happened in the case because it would "trigger everything".

"Is it for that reason you say that life sentence is called for?" Zwiegelaar asked.

"Yes," he replied.

Judge Ronald Hendricks asked Mnyakama if he had any training or knowledge around sentencing.

"No, I am an ordinary person,” he said.