Postponed muti-murder trial leaves the family distraught

NELSPRUIT – A mother who has been waiting six years for justice after her son was hacked to death for muti, was disappointed in court yet again this week. The case against her son’s alleged murderers will only continue next year.

The trial of four men, who are being charged with the murder of Mr Clarance Brown (25), was scheduled to start in the Nelspruit Circuit High Court on Wednesday. The defence attorney,

Mr Coert Jordaan, requested yet another postponement as he had not received a certain document from the state.

Family and community members wore T-shirts branded with Brown’s photo to court.

Brown’s mother, Ms Gladys Busisiwe Mokoena, spoke to Lowvelder, saying she had grown tired of waiting for justice as the defence kept postponing the trial. “The last time it was because they needed a police register list. We are tired,” she said.

Brown’s body was exhumed from his grave in Oakley Trust near Bushbuckridge in 2008, three weeks after the police had received a tip-off that he was murdered for muti purposes.

Floyd Mokoena allegedly asked his son to help him hunt down a relative so they could remove his body parts and use them to strengthen his businesses. Mr Sydney Mokoena apparently persuaded his two friends to ambush his cousin on the night of February 23, 2008, after returning from an outing.

Mpumalanga police spokesman

Col Leonard Hlathi, said the accused allegedly offered Brown a lift home.

“They apparently attacked him on the way by cutting off his right testicle, removing parts of his brain and certain bones from his body while he was still alive.” He said they then supposedly ran over him with a Venture and left him to die on the road while bleeding profusely.

“This was done to make it look like he had been a victim of a hit-and-run accident, but their dirty tricks backfired,” Hlathi said.

Judge Mnano Toffe postponed the trial from March 17 to March 28. The suspects are out on bail.