Nokuthula Simelane case back in court
The Nokuthula Simelane case was expected to return to the high court in Pretoria High on Thursday.
Simelane was abducted from an underground parking lot at the Carlton Centre in central Johannesburg in September 1983.
The Umkhonto we Sizwe operative had gone there to meet a man she thought was a comrade – Norman Khoza.
But he was actually an undercover member of the Security Police and the meeting was a set-up. She was thrown into a police vehicle and never seen again.
In 2016, two of the former apartheid policemen believed responsible – Willem Coetzee and Anton Pretorius – were finally arrested and charged with her murder.
But the case has been hamstrung by delay after delay.
Over time information has emerged that Simelane was held at the notorious Vlakplaas farm – at least for a time – and that she was tortured, killed and buried. But the location of her grave remains unknown to this day.
When the trial was set to begin in June last year, her family had hoped to finally get the answers they had been seeking for so long June.
But then the court heard Coetzee was suffering from a cognitive condition and was unable to follow proceedings.
And this has raised questions about his fitness to stand trial.
The defence has secured expert reports which suggest Coetzee isn’t fit to stand trial.
But the state has now also secured expert reports which suggest otherwise.
The case was last in court in December, when it was postponed to Thursday for the defence to consider the state’s expert reports and its position.
-EWN
In other news – PICS: Actress Phindile Gwala-Ngandu so proud of her legs
One thing South African actress and media personality, Phindile Gwala-Ngandu really loves about herself, is how beautiful her legs look which is why she boldly says it out loud every chance she gets. They said, ‘if you have it, why not show it off?’, and it might be the motto she is going with!
She has for a couple of times left many of her social media followers begging for more after stepping out wearing something revealing her legs be it a short skirt, open dress, or even a bikini. Learn More
