Jeppestown horror relived

2008-01-30 18:28

Johannesburg - The first witness in the "Jeppestown massacre" trial on Wednesday told of how she was left shocked after being robbed in the first of a sequence of events which left 12 people dead.

Joanne Brown told the Johannesburg High Court that after being robbed of her bag as she got out of her car to go shopping, she sank to the ground listening to shooting and screaming coming from the Pick n Pay supermarket in Honeydew.

Brown, who has an artificial leg, later became aware of a Honda Ballade driving slowly as a group of men who had filed into the shop before the shooting exited the shop.

She said she could not identify anyone in the vehicle but heard more shooting and "happy noises" as they drove off.

When her handbag was later returned to her by police, it was covered in blood and full of holes.

After Brown, store supervisor Sarah Marumele, who was six months pregnant, told how her manager Dirk Buys was led into the cash office with a gun pointed at his back.

Her and colleague Fikile Lusithi were ordered to hand over the CCTV cassette and money they had been counting.

Another man entered, demanding the money, and they left.

Thirteen people, including a female colleague of Marumele, are implicated in the robbery and the subsequent death of four policemen. Eight people believed to have been robbers died in a later shootout in Jeppestown, Johannesburg, on June 25, 2006.

They have all pleaded not guilty. The trial was adjourned to Thursday.

- SAPA