Coligny witness claims he was intimidated into lying about lying

After an explosive report in Afrikaans weekly Rapport on Sunday suggested the only eyewitness in the Coligny murder trial lied in the trial to implicate the accused, a report on Tuesday in the Sowetan then suggested there was more to the matter.

Rapport revealed on Sunday that it had heard a recording in which Bonakele Pakisi said he hadn’t been telling the truth when he claimed in testimony that farm workers Pieter Doorewaard, 27, and Phillip Schutte, 34, had murdered 16-year-old Matlhomola Moshoeu in April 2017.

The pair were found guilty last year in a case that was dubbed the Coligny sunflower murder. The matter was postponed for sentencing until January 28 to allow the defence and the state to prepare for mitigation and aggravation of sentencing arguments.

Community members, including Economic Freedom Fighters members in red party regalia, had regularly packed the public gallery during the trial.

Doorewaard and Schutte were ruled to have assaulted Mosweu and thrown him out of a moving bakkie on April 20 2017 at Rietvlei farm near Coligny after accusing him of stealing sunflower heads from their employer Pieter Karsten’s sunflower plantation.

Judge Ronnie Hendricks also found them guilty of kidnapping, intimidation, theft and pointing of a firearm.

They claimed that Mosweu had jumped from the vehicle and was not pushed. They said they had intended taking Mosweu to the police station, but he died after jumping off their moving bakkie.

The state, however, alleged the murder was premeditated.

The death set off a mass violent protest in Coligny that left six houses and three trucks torched and several shops looted and damaged.

Rapport revealed that a preacher from Mahikeng, Paul Morule, told them that Pakisi had admitted to him that he had lied and could no longer stay silent about it.

The next day, however, Pakisi told the Sowetan he was actually forced to change his testimony and that Morule’s recording was gained through alleged intimidation by being shown a firearm and being forced to read an allegedly already prepared statement.

He went back to standing by what he had said earlier in court.

Sowetan reported that Pakisi went to his local police station on Monday and said under oath that he was forced by one of the accused’s relatives to lie. He had earlier been kept in witness protection, but was sent home in August and claims to have been attacked twice since.

An “unknown man”, presumably Morule, came to his house earlier this month and took him to Mahikeng on the supposed pretence that the state advocate had wanted to see him, Pakisi told The Sowetan.

Pakisi claimed that one of Doorewaard’s relatives then forced him to make the “confession”, which was recorded. He was allegedly given R1,000 and later promised R3 million and a house by the said relative, who was named as “prominent businessman” Kirsten Doorewaard.

Doorewaard, however, reportedly said that Pakisi had lost touch with reality and needed to be “stopped” when Sowetan contacted him for comment.

He said he had only ever seen Pakisi at court during trial and at the police’s inspection and the story about alleged intimidation was a fabrication.

Morule told the Sowetan that the new confession would ultimately stand up to scrutiny, as Pakisi had repeated it before his own lawyer later, and there was also a recording of that. Morule had leaked the first recording to Rapport, he said.

Doorewaard and Schutte may go free if the state determines that Pakisi’s original testimony no longer has merit.

North West police also confirmed that Pakisi had told them about how he was allegedly intimidated into lying, and a case of intimidation was opened.