With most courts in summer recess we look back at some of the reports which grabbed headlines for their intriguing, horrific and sometimes unusual character, and highlighting some of the big cases to expect in the new year.
The flower box murder
In June, after nearly 14 years,, Phillip Bakkes finally confessed to murdering businessman Wynand Hibbers.
In what was dubbed “the flower box murder”, Bakkes admitted to killing his business partner, and cousin, whose business dealings went awry.
Hibbers’s body was discovered in a flower box at a house in Bluewater Bay on January 12 2012, when the flower box was demolished during renovations.
He was reported missing in July 2008 after failing to show up at work.
Bakkes and his wife, Nadine Kitching-Bakkes, were arrested in August 2017 and charged with murder and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
At the time, the pair faced fraud charges relating to the use of Hibbers’s bank accounts after his 2008 “disappearance”, but those charges were never effected by the state when the matter eventually landed up at the high court.
At the time of his guilty plea, the firearm and ammunition charges were withdrawn against him and his wife was acquitted on all charges.
Bakkes was effectively sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
Boetie Boer
Gqeberha’s most notorious serial killer, Stewart Wilken or “Boetie Boer”, who had a particular taste for young boys and prostitutes whom he would sometimes dine on while having sex with their corpses, became eligible for parole after serving almost 25 years of his seven life sentences.
Described as one of the most vile criminals in SA history and the subject of numerous studies, he officially applied for parole.
At the time, department of correctional services national spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said rumours that Wilken had received a presidential pardon were simply not true.
Nxumalo said Wilken’s profile was being considered for submission to the parole board.
Wilken’s murderous rampage spanned seven years, with his first kill in October 1990.
By the time of his January 31 1997 arrest, Wilken had killed at least 10 people, including his nine-year-old daughter, Wuane, whose decomposing body he would sleep next to in bushes at Happy Valley.
Renowned serial killer profiler and esteemed forensic psychologist Dr Gerard Labuschagne said after hearing that Wilken might be considered for parole that it would be irresponsible for authorities to even entertain the idea of releasing someone like Wilken into the public.
Wife killer
In September, graphic details were exposed in the Gqeberha high court when Mario Potgieter admitted to the May 2021 murder of his wife, Monica, whom he stabbed in the chest out of “blind rage”.
But before his guilty plea, Potgieter had given his relatives a vastly different story of how his wife and mother of three died.
Relatives said Potgieter had told them and the police that he was in their bedroom of the Uranus Street, Gelvandale home he had shared with his wife of 29 years when he saw a mouse.
He then claimed that he had thrown a knife at the mouse in the hopes of killing it, but it had hit Monica in the chest instead.
However, in an abrupt twist to the story, Potgieter admitted in his plea explanation that he had stabbed his wife during a heated argument.
Potgieter was handed down a 23-year sentence.
Peter Lyons
In March, Peter Lyons admitted to the November 2019 premeditated murder of his 74-year-old mother, Mable, whom he suffocated with a plastic bag and a pillow before standing on her chest.
Lyons admitted to being an alcoholic, which fuelled his murderous tendencies.
He further admitted to the 2003 murder of his then landlord, Dennis Ogle, 59, whom he had assaulted and strangled after an altercation.
A postmortem report revealed Ogle had suffered six fractured ribs, an abrasion to the skull and deep ligature marks to the neck.
Lyons was sentenced to life for the murder of his mother, 20 years for the murder of Ogle and 15 years for robbery.
Human Rights Commission versus Hofmeyr
Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr has been in the papers more often than performing on stage this year.
In June, the SA Human Rights Commission took Hofmeyr to the equality court to institute legal action and to force him to answer to claims that he had made salacious and derogatory comments by allegedly comparing members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, Intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) community to paedophiles and suggesting they take part in bestiality.
The SAHRC claimed Hofmeyr had broken the law when he made comments about the use of the plus (+) at the end of the acronym and newly launched streaming service Disney+.
In a post on Facebook on April 2, Hofmeyr said: “Disney warns the world that it will change its characters for children to reflect every sexual LGBTQI+ preference under the sun.
“It’s not a nice conversation to have, lefties, but we need to have it because it’s your very interesting idea.
“Where my generation learnt to talk to mice, ducks and dogs, our children are going to be taught how to have sex with mice, ducks and dogs.”
The SAHRC has asked the equality court to demand from Hofmeyr a public apology, a R500,000 penalty and that he dedicate at least 20 hours working for an organisation promoting the LGBTQI+ community.
The matter is expected back in court on February 16.
While Hofmeyr is sure to make more headlines in the coming year, other court cases of interest are set to begin after the courts return from their break on January 16.
Alleged wife killer Arnold Terblanche
Alleged wife killer Arnold Terblanche has been grabbing headlines since his November 2021 arrest and will be back in court on January 20 after he lost his second bid for bail based on new facts.
Terblanche was denied bail on December 23 when magistrate Kriban Pillay found that his conduct during ongoing court battles was “mischievous” and that he showed a propensity to interfere with state witnesses.
Terblanche was first denied bail in January 2022.
This was followed by a failed attempt to appeal against Pillay’s decision not to grant him bail.
He then brought a second bail application based on new facts but this was also dismissed by Pillay who found there were no new facts.
Terblanche won a small victory in the Gqeberha high court in October when his application to appeal against Pillay’s ruling was granted.
On the same day, Terblanche was arrested at St Albans Correctional Facility and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder and six counts of conspiracy to defeat the ends of justice.
Terblanche was initially arrested in November 2021 and charged with the murder of his estranged wife Vicki, whose body was found in a shallow grave on a plot in Greenbushes on October 23 2021.
She had been reported missing two days earlier by her boyfriend, Reinhardt Leach.
Leach and his friend Dylan Cullis were arrested shortly after Vicki’s body was discovered.
All three face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, murder and defeating the ends of justice.
While Terblanche continues in his bid for freedom, Leach has abandoned his bail application and Cullis has entered into a plea bargain with the state.
Single mom Shenice Jonathan murdered
More than a year after he was denied bail in the Gqeberha magistrate’s court, murder accused Quinton Scheepers will be back in court on January 26, when his trial is expected to finally get under way.
Scheepers has been charged with the brutal murder of single mom Shenice Jonathan, who was stabbed at least 47 times and left in a field in Schauderville on August 8 2021.
Scheepers faces a charge of premeditated murder after evidence collected by Warrant Officer Neil Hendricks, including witness statements, placed Scheepers at the scene on the day of the murder, but Scheepers claimed during his bail application this was not true.
The state claims the murder was an act of gender-based violence.
Nigerian televangelist Omotoso
Nigerian televangelist Timothy Omotoso and his co-accused, Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho, are expected back in court in January when their protracted trial is set to continue pending the outcome of their petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
They approached the SCA with the hope that the court would rule in favour of a mistrial being declared.
Omotoso’s legal woes have lasted nearly six years since he was arrested at the Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport in April 2017 and charged with a litany of charges including rape, human trafficking, sexual assault and racketeering.
All three had previously pleaded not guilty.
After losing out in their application for a mistrial and for judge Irma Schoeman to recuse herself, Schoeman dismissed their application to appeal against her decision.
They then approached the SCA after Schoeman found that there were no reasonable prospects that a different court would come to different conclusion.
Last year, Omotoso brought the application for a mistrial after it came to light that the lead prosecutor at the time, Nceba Ntelwa, had allegedly instructed key witnesses not to testify about certain aspects of their original statements to police.
Ntelwa officially withdrew from the matter in January after Schoeman found in her December 2021 judgment that he had acted inappropriately when he suggested to fellow state advocate Ismat Cerfontein that some witnesses not testify on evidence not contained in the indictment.
He has failed in numerous attempts for bail, including approaching the highest court in the land.
Sulani and Sitho are on bail of R2,000 each.
The matter was postponed to January 31.
Containers at cost price
Eritrean Estifanos Ghebre Selassie Beyene, accused of stealing shipping containers from a Gqeberha harbour, is expected to have his day in court on February 1.
Beyene faces numerous charges including fraud amounting to more than R4m, multiple corruption charges, forgery, money laundering and escaping from custody.
Having been in SA since 2001, and granted refugee status in 2009 and 2016, Beyene was arrested on May 19 2020 in Kariega.
After his arrest he was taken to the Humewood home he shared with his wife and two children, where he attempted to evade police by jumping from a second-storey balcony.
It is alleged that, using an intricate web of lies and deceit, Beyene used various underhanded tactics to steal at least four shipping containers loaded with cosmetics, clothing, mechanical equipment and other wares which arrived at the port of Ngqura between November 2019 and May 2020.
It is alleged Beyene used several contacts from the Sars Border Control Unit, employees of Transnet and drivers of freight trucks to dupe port officials to release containers to him though he had no rightful claim to them.
Beneye was denied bail in the city’s magistrate’s court and lost his appeal in the high court after it was found that he posed a flight risk.
He has been in custody since.
Wendell Petersen
Convicted murderer and alleged notorious gang boss Wendell Petersen is expected back in the Gqeberha high court on February 6 when sentencing proceedings are expected to get under way.
Petersen, Jermaine Mitchell, Glynn Carelson and Robin Taylor were convicted in June 2021 on three counts of murder, three counts of conspiracy to commit murder and the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition after judge Mandela Makaula found that the state had proved beyond reasonable doubt that they were guilty.
They were found guilty of the September 14 2015 murders of Theodore “Tupac” Matthews, Ranjen Naidoo and Jermain “Jabilo” Essau.
Makaula found that Carelson and Taylor had ben the gunmen, and that the murders had been carried out at the behest of Peterson.
Mitchell was only linked to the murder of Matthews.
They were positively linked to the crimes through cellphone records, voice recordings and the vehicle used during the commission of the offences.
Evidence of a state witness was also considered to be paramount in the convictions.
During the trial, Petersen vehemently denied being a gangster and the leader of the notorious Dustlifes gang.
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