Judge inspects Griekwastad farm
2013-03-18 14:48
Griekwastad - The Northern Cape High Court did an in loco
inspection on Monday of the farm where three family members were killed in
Griekwastad last year.
Judge Frans Kgomo is presiding over the trial of a
16-year-old youth accused of killing farmer Deon Steenkamp, 44, his wife
Christel, 43, and daughter Marthella, 14, on the farm Naauwhoek, on 6 April.
The judge's inspection started in the charge office of
the Griekwastad police station, on the town's main road.
The judge, court personnel, the prosecuting team, the
defence and media followed case investigator Colonel Dick de Waal along a badly
maintained gravel road to the farm 9km outside town.
De Waal stopped twice for prosecutor Hannes Cloete to
indicate points which have been mentioned in evidence and which will come up in
future testimony in court.
The Naauwhoek farm, on the road to Niekerkshoop, has two
entrances both with locked farm gates painted silver.
The first entrance route goes past the houses of
farmworkers, where certain aspects were pointed out to Kgomo by the prosecution
and defence.
The nine-vehicle procession entered the farm-yard through
the main gate, as indicated by a white sign sponsored by a local agricultural
company.
In the desolate back yard was a single tyre swing in a
gap of medium sized poplar trees, directly in line with the back door.
A narrow steel framed radio tower with a dish and
television antennae stood next to the house, near the back door.
A netball or basketball ring had been welded to the
tower.
There was no cellphone connection on the farm.
As the vehicles stopped beside the house, the only sound
was of a single sprinkler on a green and well-kept lawn at the front door.
Four other sprinklers were silently watering different
parts of the garden.
All the blinds and curtains were drawn in the light pink
house.
Kgoma was first shown the barn, 30m behind the house.
There were virtually no farm tools outside the barn,
except for a silver anvil stand to the left of the door and a 2200 litre
locked, dry, diesel tank, also painted silver, to one side of the sliding
doors.
A nearby chicken coop or lamb shelter was empty and
overgrown with grass.
The meat room and the refrigerator
In the barn, the judge was shown the meat room and
refrigerator at the back. On the way out, time was spent at the working bench
in the right-hand corner, next to the door.
Cloete indicated that the house's back door was visible
through a window.
Defence counsel Willem Coetzee drew attention to the
windows which were blackened, apparently from welding done at the bench.
At the house, Kgomo was shown a bullet hole in the
asbestos-type wall near the back door.
The hour-and-a-half long in loco inspection ended with a
walk through the house.
No attention was given to the front of the house, which
featured a home-built stone swimming pool, a braai and an entertainment area.
This was the first time the media was allowed on the farm
since the murders.
The court is expected to sit again in Kimberley on
Tuesday.
- SAPA
