‘Murder of wife has destroyed my life’

The raw emotions of a husband shattered by the senseless murder of his wife were laid bare yesterday after the teenager who shot Magda van Vuuren pleaded guilty to all the charges in the Port Elizabeth Regional Court.

Pieter van Vuuren, 61 – who could not bring himself to be in the courtroom – spoke candidly later about the devastation his wife’s death had wreaked on him and his family.

“Seeing my wife lying there in the road in a pool of blood, like a dog hit by a car, made me go nuts,” he said, recalling the events of September 12 2016.

“My whole life was lying there in the road.”

Magda, 53, the mother of two daughters, was shot outside her mother’s Diaz Road, Adcockvale, home after a scuffle with an armed youth in school uniform who attempted to steal her car.

She had gone to take groceries to her elderly mother, Sally Potgieter, when the murder took place.

Four schoolchildren were arrested later in connection with the murder.

Yesterday, state prosecutor Hennie van Vuuren asked magistrate Eric Mbiyo to separate the case of the four accused, after Esonasipho Mrasi, 18, pleaded guilty to gunning her down.

The three others, all 17, have been charged with robbery and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. Their case is continuing.

They cannot be named as they are still minors.

Mrasi, a former Westview Secondary School pupil, pleaded guilty yesterday to the murder of Magda, theft, robbery with aggravating circumstances, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, as well as driving a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s licence.

“My whole life has been destroyed,” Van Vuuren said.

“She [Magda] was an only child and would visit her mother every day.”

Van Vuuren had spoken to his wife just minutes before she was shot and she had told him that she was on her way home to feed their dog.

“It was just after 3pm when my mother-in-law called, she was screaming on the phone.

“I was shocked – and I am still devastated.

“I still wake up in the mornings and talk and then realise she is not there,” he said.

An emotional Van Vuuren said his marriage to Magda was “like a fairytale, we never fought or said anything ugly to each other”.

“We were married for 32 years – and then this b ***** d comes and kills her.”

Van Vuuren said he had no inclination to attend the court case.

“I don’t want to see him. I am not interested to know about him – he destroyed my life and that of my family.

“I will never get over Magda, she was my angel, my everything.

“I don’t know how to explain how I feel – I don’t have the words.

“I don’t care what happens to them, nothing will ever bring Magda back,” he said, after hearing about the guilty plea.

In his plea statement read out by his legal representative, Kuban Chetty, Mrasi admitted to removing his father’s firearm – a .22 Long Rifle Calibre semi-automatic pistol – from the safe and taking it with him on the bus he usually took to school with one of his former co-accused.

After they arrived at a bus stop near Greenacres, they met up with the two other accused before deciding to skip school and walk around the Greenacres Shopping Centre.

One of the other accused snapped a selfie of himself holding the gun in a toilet at Greenacres.

“We decided to exit the shopping mall and walk around the Greenacres area to pass time until we had to take our bus back home,” Mrasi said.

Then they saw Magda’s gold BMW and decided to wait for the owner so that they could steal the vehicle.

The gun exchanged hands in the group and Msari, who was now carrying the weapon, approached Magda as she climbed into her car.

At that stage, two of the other accused ran away.

Mrasi fired a shot in the air, opened the car door and ordered Magda to get out.

The third accused then also ran away.

“I engaged in an argument with [Magda] whereafter I saw a white [VW] Polo motor vehicle approaching,” Mrasi said.

“I panicked and fired a second shot at the woman which struck her body.”

He pulled Magda out of the BMW, and then drove away in the car and met up with the three other accused.

They then drove to Wells Estate.

Later that evening, Mrasi fetched a friend and they drove to Bluewater Bay, where they were arrested after an off-duty police officer spotted the car, which had been reported stolen.

Police allegedly found the gun used in the shooting in the schoolbag of one of the other accused.

Mrasi did not give a specific reason for the shooting in his plea, saying only that he and the other accused had wanted to steal the car belonging to Magda.

After Mrasi pleaded guilty, Chetty submitted a postmortem report, crime-scene photos, pictures of Magda in hospital and a ballistics report to the court.

Mbiyo said the court was satisfied that Mrasi had pleaded guilty to all six charges.

“The court finds you guilty on all six charges,” he said.

Chetty told the court Mrasi was out on warning and asked that this be extended until he appears again for his pre-sentence hearing.

The other three accused are also out on warning.

Chetty said there were still some outstanding documents, including a report from a psychologist who had been consulting with Mrasi since his arrest.

The case was postponed to July 9.