Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

The Burundi murder trial of SA Air Force Sergeant Flippie Venter will be concluded in South Africa, a court in Bujumbura ruled yesterday.

Venter, who has already been convicted in South Africa of the murder of his two children and the attempted murder of his wife, is accused of raping and strangling teenage Burundian prostitute Therese Nkeshimana (14) on September 20 2004.

He is also accused of assaulting a hotel security guard that night who refused to give him and the girl a room and allegedly tried to bribe the taxi driver who was the last to see him and the girl.

In another charge against Venter it is claimed that he did not report back to his base before curfew that night. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The court was yesterday supposed to hear arguments before judgment, but it was told that Venter’s lawyer Patrick Loots did not make the trip to Burundi as Venter has run out of money.

This was one of the reasons Venter gave when he asked the military court to move the trial to Pretoria.

Addressing the court in leg-irons, Venter read a statement.

“On the previous occasion I was prepared for the trial to be finalised. I had funds and Loots was ready to proceed. I feel it is the prosecution’s fault that we did not finish.

“Lieutenant Colonel (Tinus) Kleyn (the prosecutor) was several times not ready and often we only started at 2pm,” Venter claimed.

He insisted that his lawyer, Jenny Brewers, and Loots continue defending him, especially as they indicated that they would do it for free. “But I cannot expect Loots to come here at his own expense,” the accused said.

According to him Kleyn suggested that Loots ask to be called up as a member of the SANDF’s reserve force to Burundi to enable him to attend the trial.

Apparently Loots was told this would be a “mere formality”. But on November 1 a military defence counsellor visited Venter in jail, saying she was appointed to defend him.

“It is clear Kleyn does not want Loots to finalise this case for me. Loots was willing to live at the military base. These costs would have been nothing compared to what this case has already cost the State,” Venter read.

If found guilty, he would want to call experts in mitigation of sentence and hand in pre-sentence reports. This could not be done in Burundi, Venter said.

Chief Judge Colonel Johan Crouse said neither Loots nor Brewers attended the postponements in Pretoria due to a lack of funds. Now the court was being told they would continue for free.

He said Venter should contact Loots in the presence of the officer in command of the satellite legal office in Burundi to confirm this.

The court found there was no legal reason why the arguments in the case should be heard in Burundi, as the local witnesses had already testified. “The case will be postponed to December 15 in Thaba Tshwane,” Crouse concluded.