“I saw what the accused did to me. I am not making up a story,” Bonakele Pakisi told the North West High Court on Monday during the trial of Pieter Doorewaard, 27, and Philip Schutte, 34.
Pakisi was responding to questions posed to him by advocate Hennie du Plessis, for Doorewaard, who accused him of changing his version of events.
Doorewaard and Schutte are accused of killing 16-year-old Matlhomola Moshoeu in Coligny last year. The pair claim they caught the teenager stealing a sunflower on April 20, 2017.
“I want to put it to you that you have been fabricating your version, and changing [it] the whole time we are in court,” Du Plessis told Pakisi.
“In short, I don’t believe you. Your version started with two suspects throwing the deceased from the van. Another one says there were three suspects who threw the child from the van,” Du Plessis said.
But Pakisi hit back and said: “Fabricating it how? They (accused) want to protect themselves. I didn’t change anything. I have said the things the accused have done. I am not prophesying anything. Accused two [Schutte] is the one who threw him from a moving vehicle,” Pakisi told the court.
Pakisi is the only person who claims to have witnessed Moshoeu being thrown from a moving vehicle on April 20, 2017.
Doorewaard and Schutte said they had intended driving Moshoeu to the local police station, but that he had jumped off their bakkie along the way and broken his neck.
‘Mama help, I am dying’
Pakisi told the court on Monday that he was traumatised by what had happened to him and could not recall the events in detail. He said he would often have flashbacks about the incident.
But Du Plessis said Doorewaard has denied making contact with Pakisi on the day of the incident.
He also said his client denied assaulting and killing Moshoeu.
Pakisi had earlier told the court that, on the day of the incident, he heard gunshots coming from the sunflower field.
He also claimed that he heard Moshoeu crying and screaming: “Mama help, I am dying.”
Pakisi said he saw the accused assaulting the teen and then saw them throw him from a moving vehicle. He said, when the accused saw him, they apparently asked him what he had seen.
WATCH: A News24 Documentary | Stealing Sunflowers
Moshoeu’s death sparked protests in the area, with some residents saying he was killed because he was black. Several houses and businesses were burnt to the ground.
The accused have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, intimidation, kidnapping, theft, the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition and pointing a firearm.
Doorewaard and Schutte are out on R5 000 bail each.
