Cape Town - The Western Cape’s court roll has accounted for many high-profile cases during the year.
Among them is the murder case of Western Cape top cop, Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear.
The Anti-Gang Unit commander was shot dead outside his Bishop Lavis home on September 18, 2020.
The investigation into his murder first led to the arrest of former rugby player Zane Kilian, who had allegedly tracked Kinnear’s cellphone, making him a co-conspirator to murder.
Kilian, who has been claiming innocence, paraded in a white shirt at one of his court appearances at the Bellville magistrates court, with hashtags and messages alluding to the murder being an inside job.
A few months later, on April 29, 2021, controversial businessman Nafiz Modack was arrested after a dramatic chase with the Hawks and SAPS near Century City.
It is believed that Kinnear had been investigating Modack’s alleged role in the underworld fight to gain control of the city’s nightclub security industry.
AGU Sergeant Ashley Tabisher, Modack, Kilian, Jacques Cronje, Ricardo Morgan, Jannick Adonis, and Amaal Jantjies, later all took to the stand after being accused of being members of the “Nafiz Modack Enterprise”, which according to the State, were behind the plot to kill Kinnear and his family.
The case, which has been postponed more than 100 times, has now come to the nail-biting heads of arguments that would have been heard on December 30, 2021.
While Modack and his co-accused await the outcome of their hearing, businessman and property mogul Jason Rohde, who was convicted for the murder of his wife, had tried all the avenues to rid himself of the guilty of murder verdict.
Rohde, who is currently serving 15 years behind bars for the 2016 murder of his wife, Susan, at the Spier Hotel, had become a household name after his many failed attempts to clear his name of being a wife-murderer.
Susan was found inside their hotel room bathroom, with a hair-curler cord around her neck.
Moments before the murder, Rohde and Susan were involved in a domestic dispute relating to an extramarital affair he allegedly had with his former colleague.
Rohde, who maintains his innocence, had told the court that his wife committed suicide after the argument.
It is for this reason that Rohde decided to lodge a series of appeals against Western Cape High court Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe’s guilty verdict. In October 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal against the conviction of the murder of his wife but had his sentence reduced to 15 years imprisonment. Rhode again applied at the Constitutional Court, where his application was refused in mid-December.
On the topic of gender-based violence, child rapist and murderer Steven Fortune was labelled as the most evil man by judge Robert Henney of the Western Cape High Court.
Fortune was sentenced to three life imprisonment sentences for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Michaela Williams.
This was not the first time Fortune had been labelled evil. Earlier, psychiatrist Dr Marc Roffey said Fortune was a dangerous man who would kill again in the future.
The 12-year-old Williams, from New Horizon in Pelican Park, was lured away from her parents’ house by Fortune on January 7 last year with the promise of a piece of birthday cake.
According to Fortune’s plea agreement, he had already decided to rape and kill Williams.
The case outraged by gender-based violence activists who called for a better parole system after it was revealed that Fortune had been on parole when he committed the crime.
The year also saw a series of child negligence cases.
In July, the Parow Regional Court sentenced a mother to five years imprisonment, put her daughter up for adoption, banned her from working with children and declared her unfit to own a firearm.
This follows her conviction on charges of child neglect and child abuse.
The mother, who cannot be named to protect her child, was convicted with her long-time friend, Ursula Pace. Pace was convicted on a charge of child neglect and sentenced to five years imprisonment. The court also declared her unfit to work with children.
The child had bite marks on her body as well as bruises, abrasions and burn marks. The incidents of neglect and abuse took place in 2019.
One of the Cape’s most recent cases is that of Priscilla Morris, who was arrested on December 20 after she allegedly beat and threw water into nine-month-old baby Caswell Frans’ face resulting in his death.
The boy’s body was found three days later after Morris had allegedly put it into a bag and buried it on an open field in a shallow grave in Vrygrond near Lavender Hill.
According to a family member who had spoken exclusively to the Weekend Argus, Morris had been abusing baby Caswell since she started looking after him.
The case will continue in the Muizenberg Magistrate’s Court next year, where Morris had applied for bail.
Weekend Argus