More than a month after the Department of Justice and Correctional Services indicated that it would be investigating why the trial of six men accused of raping and murdering Cytheria Rex has been dragging for 14 years, it was postponed yet again.
The matter has now been postponed 117 times, this time due to a lawyer withdrawing from the case.
Yesterday, Virgil Sass, Oswill Grootboom, Imeraan Hendricks, Lee Cloete, Rhonwen Rhode, and Keenan Lewis made an appearance at the Blue Downs Regional Court.
The court was ready to execute warrants of arrest for Grootboom, Rhode and Lewis but they came storming into the room moments after the case had begun and offered no explanation as to why they were late.
The court officials also made no effort to ask the men why they had arrived at court more than an hour later.
Rex's family handed over a petition, with 150 signatures, to the court, begging that the case has no further delays.
Her alleged killers asked to be discharged and freed. The case had been postponed 116 times at that stage.
The State informed the court that accused two, Grootboom, who was dressed in a black hooded jacket, had received a permanent position and could no longer be his representative.
The parties agreed that the matter be postponed until July 13 for the lawyer to formally withdraw from the case and for a new one to be appointed.
Outside court, Rex's aunt, Cathleen van der Merwe burst into tears and was very emotional: “I asked the prosecutor whether they will come out and he said he knows they will not come out.”
Rex’s uncle, James Rasmus, said the family was disappointed by the delay: “We want to know why this lawyer did not submit his forms of withdrawal before the case was on the court roll today as he knew this two weeks before.
“We are very upset, the parents are sick and tired of the postponements.
“Today it is the legal aid that is causing the delay.
“Now the case cannot move to the Cape High Court as it is here at this court and now we come here and it is a waste of time as nothing happens.”
Grootboom then approached the news team asking why their photographs were being taken and some of the accused began taking photographs of the team.
“This case has been in the newspaper,” Grootboom said.
He joined his two other accused who are out on bail and a group of his friends and left the courthouse.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s Eric Ntabazalila revealed during the accuseds’ last appearance on February 27, the magistrate’s contract had ended and the accuseds’ legal team called for a perusal of a Section 174, known as a discharge.
But the magistrate informed the court yesterday (Friday) that he would be presiding over the trial despite being moved to another courthouse soon.
Warren Robertson, also an accused, died in May 2017 after he was murdered.
In March, MEC for Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagan Allen, also placed their Court Watch team on the case.
Ntabazalia said in a report that the case had been postponed 116 times, 50 times due to the lawyer or judicial care and 22 times because of absenteeism of the accused.
Rex was raped, stabbed over 40 times, her stomach slit open and her killers had forced her body inside a wheelie bin, causing her bones to crush and was dumped on a field in Eikendal in Kraaifontein on February 22, 2009.
It had been Rex’s blood which made a trail where she was murdered to where she was dumped, leading police to the doorstep of her killers.