Dead teen ‘lost a lot of blood’

Slain Coligny teenager Matlhomola Jonas Mosweu lost a lot of blood, the North West High Court in Mahikeng heard yesterday. “There was a lot of blood in the van, the boy lost a lot of blood. The blood was not flowing because it was drying or clotting,” eyewitness Bonakele Pakisi testified. “You could only see when the van shakes that there was a lot of blood.”

Defence advocate Hennie du Plessis, for murder accused Pieter Doorewaard, 26, and Phillip Schutte, 34, asked Pakisi under cross-examination whether Mosweu was alive or moving when he got into the van.

He said: “I couldn’t see whether he was still alive, I saw a lot of blood.”

Du Plessis further put to Pakisi that it was impossible that no one saw the incident when he was allegedly assaulted by Doorewaard and Schutte at the NWK silos in Coligny on April 20, 2017.

“I did not see anyone,” he replied. “I was focusing on the men assaulting me.”

Mosweu’s father, Sakkie Dingake, 45, folded his arms while listening to Pakisi’s testimony.

Doorewaard and Schutte are facing charges of murder, intimidation, kidnapping, unlawful possession of firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, theft and pointing of a firearm.

The state alleges the two killed 16-year-old Mosweu on April 20, 2017, at Scotland informal settlement in Coligny after accusing him of stealing sunflower from their employer Pieter Kasten’s field at the Rietveli farm.

They claimed they put Mosweu at the back of a van intending to take him to the police, but that he jumped out of the moving van and injured his neck. They claimed he died on his way to hospital. – ANA