Pinky Strydom trial is postponed

MBOMBELA – The trial against two men accused of assaulting Pinky Strydom (88), from White River was set to begin on Friday.

Steve Seerane and Milton Masuku were to appear in court on various charges of assault with intention to do grievous bodily harm, attempted murder and robbery.

Both men had previously pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

State prosecutor, Adv Isabet Erwee requested a provisional postponement due to the defence council’s failure to appear.

Lowvelder had previously reported that Strydom was left locked up and injured in a dark room without food or water or toilet facilities on October 11, 2014.

“I had only the memorised passages of the Word of God that I kept in my mind to keep me going,” she had said in court.

Her grandson, Roelof Duvenhage, found her two days later. “He saved my life.”Detective, WO Grobbies Grobler had recounted how they searched the property for clues, but were unable to track down any suspects for the next eight days.

Grobler placed on record how Seerane and Masuku were caught.

“It was the night of October 20,” he said. An informant had pointed the police to the homes of Seerane and Masuku in Ngodini. Grobler and his colleagues managed to track Seerane down first. “He was at home sleeping. We found two cellphones on his bed,” said Grobler.

A DStv decoder was found in his room, as was a home-made axe. Some of the items found had been reported stolen by Strydom. It is alleged that the axe may have been used in the attack.The police proceeded to Masuku’s home.

“We found a Tosca bag. Inside it was a red bag. There were jewellery, watches, old coins, keys and access remotes inside,” the detective explained.

He also found ammunition and a black BB gun. It struck Grobler that pairs of recently washed shoes were found in both the accused’s homes. Strydom was overpowered in her garage.

She was repeatedly assaulted with an axe, strangled to the point of near-death and dragged across carpets in her home until her upper thighs bled.

The matter was postponed until June 29. The two accused remain in custody.