Murder victim was brilliant: Mother

BLOODSTAINS can still be seen on the concrete block and paving brick that are suspected to have been the crude weapons with which the 14-year-old Christo Moshoeshoe was murdered in Windhoek shortly before the end of 2003.

The concrete block, weighing more than 18 kg, and the paving brick have been lying on a table reserved for trial exhibits in the High Court in Windhoek this week. On both objects, faded blood stains – the red having by now turned a rusty brown – are still clearly visible.These are the weapons that are thought to have been used to crush Christo Moshoeshoe’s head when he was killed near railway lines next to the Gammams sport field near the Southern Industrial Area on December 23 2003.On Tuesday, as she stood on the witness stand before Judge Nate Ndauendapo, Moshoeshoe’s mother, Pauline Sekgonyana, ended her testimony in the trial of the young man accused of killing and raping her son by pointing at the alleged murder weapons and making a last remark to the court.’He did not deserve such a thing,’ Sekgonyana said.On trial before Judge Ndauendapo is 24-year-old Deon Engelbrecht. At the start of his trial on Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty to all of the charges that he is facing.These are main counts of murder and rape, as well as three alternative charges under the rape charge.Engelbrecht’s defence counsel, Winnie Christians, told the Judge that Engelbrecht was denying having committed either rape or murder.He was admitting having been in the company of Moshoeshoe and another person on the day of the fatal incident, and also that they had smoked cannabis and mandrax together, but is claiming that they had parted ways before Moshoeshoe was killed, the court was told.Moshoeshoe was a day-old baby when she adopted him at Rundu in July 1989, Sekgonyana told the Judge in her testimony.’I brought him up in faith and love of God,’ she said.At school, she said, her son was a ‘very brilliant student’.’He was a very brilliant child. He was as naughty as any child could be naughty,’ she said. ‘They used to love him at school, because he was very brilliant; especially at mathematics, science, English and history.’Moshoeshoe was at a boarding school at Kalkrand during 2003, and was supposed to return home to Rehoboth, where she lives, for the year-end holiday, she related.She was waiting for him to arrive home for the holiday when she found only his luggage standing outside her house one afternoon. When he did not arrive home during the next few days, she contacted the Police to help search for him, but this delivered no results, she related.After hearing from someone that Moshoeshoe had gone to Windhoek with two other boys, she drove to the city to look for him, but still could not find him, she said.She then had to travel to South Africa on business, and it was while she was there that she received a phone call summoning her to return home.When she arrived back home, she was told that her son had been raped and murdered, she said.Moshoeshoe did not use drugs or drink alcohol – or rather, ‘not to my knowledge’, Sekgonyana testified.According to State witness Richard Renton, who told the court that he and Moshoeshoe had spent the day that Moshoeshoe was killed with each other, Moshoeshoe indeed used drugs, though.He told the court that he and Moshoeshoe had bought some dagga and a mandrax tablet at a place in Suiderhof on the day of Moshoeshoe’s death.They then smoked the drugs, and were joined by Engelbrecht, who asked if he could also have some of the dagga and mandrax, Renton testified. The only conversation between Engelbrecht and Moshoeshoe was when Engelbrecht asked if he could share in the drugs, Renton said.He said he and Engelbrecht then went off together, leaving Moshoeshoe behind. He could see no animosity between Engelbrecht and Moshoeshoe at that stage, he told Judge Ndauendapo.Engelbrecht’s trial, which had first been scheduled to start in the High Court in July 2007, before it was repeatedly delayed by the withdrawal of a succession of defence lawyers who had been instructed to represent Engelbrecht, is continuing today.State advocate Andrew Muvirimi is prosecuting.Engelbrecht has been in custody since December 23 2003.