It was a day of unspeakable agony for three Gqeberha siblings, all dressed in black, who looked on as their father took to the dock of the city’s magistrate’s court, charged with the murder of their mother.

Moments after Colin “Junior” Kannemeyer’s brief appearance on Tuesday, they spoke fleetingly to him in the court’s holding cells, but many of their questions about their mother’s death were left unanswered...