Mooi River couple Gillian Dinnis and her husband, Antony, was allegedly murdered for muti. Photo: Facebook
A grim confession alleging that her parents were murdered and dismembered for muti continues to haunt Kate Anderson as the suspects in the Mooi River couple’s case still enjoy their freedom.
This after Anthony (73) and Gillian Dinnis (78), originally from Kent in the UK, disappeared without a trace from their farm in KwaZulu-Natal‘s Mooi River area on 30 August last year.
A distraught Anderson shared her pain and frustration in an interview with Rapport this week.
“My parents were slaughtered. They were old, defenceless and only had each other. Who does something like this to people?”
Anderson packed her bags and travelled from Cape Town rushed to her parent’s farm as soon as she received the distressing news that the retired couple has disappeared.
She told Rapport that when she arrived on Dinnis’ cattle and vegetable farm, their half-finished plates and glasses of fruit juice were still on the kitchen table.
Their four dogs – one of them extremely distressed – were aimlessly wandering around at her father’s Land Rover. Anthony’s wallet was still in the room.
“They are gone, as if strange beings took them,” said Anderson.
Seven days after their disappearance, text messages in isiZulu were sent from Gillian’s cellphone to one of her four brothers, Sam Dinnis, demanding a ransom of R2 million.
“To make things easy, just pay R2 million into this bank account number if you want to see your parents again,” the message (translated from isiZulu) read.
The bank account number was that of her mother’s.
According to Anderson, the family then urged the police to allocate more resources to intensify the search.
When she asked for her mother’s phone to be tracked, the police, however, apparently told her that they only had one grabber device and that it was being used in another case.
When she asked for a helicopter to assist, she was told two of their three helicopters had crashed and the third one was broken.
Anderson said the couple’s gardener was mentioned several time in her father’s diary.
Since cellphone reception is very poor in Middelrus, Anderson and her daughter told the police that there would only be two places where the text messages could have – been sent from: The community farm or the church.
This led to the police tracking down the missing couple’s gardener on 16 September at the church – with Gillian’s SIM card in his own phone.
The Citizen previously reported on disturbing evidence which surfaced during the bail hearing of one of the suspects – the 22-year-old Lungelo Mkhize – at the Mooi River Magistrate’s Court on 19 March.
In an affidavit submitted in court by Detective Warrant Officer Johannes de Lange, the second suspect, who was the couple’s gardener allegedly admitted to the police that he was one of three men involved in the kidnapping.
“He also indicated that they went to the Dinnis residence and took a brush cutter, chainsaw and a TV. He revealed that the other two men were armed with firearms. Thereafter, they left with the couple and went to another residence, where they murdered the couple,” De Lange stated in court.
According to the suspect, they then cut off some of the couple’s body parts, which they planned to sell for R50 000 for muti in Johannesburg.
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His bail was successfully opposed during his bail hearing, and he appeared in court several times. However, on 13 June this year, the charges against him were withdrawn, and he was released.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, told Rapport on Friday that the charges against him were withdrawn due to “insufficient evidence”.
Provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Simphiwe Mhlongo, confirmed on Friday that police initially arrested two suspects. They were not charged and were released after questioning. One was later re-arrested.
Mhlongo added that the investigation is still ongoing.
Anderson told Rapport that she had read the statement from the suspect who claimed that her parents’ bodies were chopped up and sold for muti to a sangoma in Johannesburg.
“My question is also: Where is the sangoma?”
Anderson revealed in the interview that very reliable sources told her that the second suspect claims that the police assaulted him.
ALSO READ: Two men claim in grim confession they sold Joslin Smith for muti
According to the couple’s daughter, she feels that the case has been “messed up”. She said the police officers grew up in the area and might be afraid to stir things up too much.
“Is there a massive cover-up?” she asked, adding that the police officers grew up in the area and might be afraid due to the muti claims.
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Anderson said she has sent emails to the Hawks and other stakeholders, beseeching them not to abandon the investigation.
She also approached AfriForum’s private prosecution unit.
According to the unit’s spokesperson, Barry Bateman, they sent a letter to the Hawks in Pietermaritzburg on 12 April to keep the missing Mooi River couple’s family informed about the status of the investigation.
Bateman told Rapport that the unit will monitor the process and intervene if necessary.
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