‘Six years is a long time to put somebody to rest’

Six years after a Hangberg mother of four was doused in petrol and set alight, her family can finally breathe a sigh of relief after a court reached a guilty verdict for her murder.

The late Miscah Fakier’s cousin, Fadwah Vardien, told the Sentinel that she and her family felt vindicated.

Elridge du Plessis, 37, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Fakier, 44, who suffered burn wounds to 70% of her body when she was attacked in Hout Bay in January 2018.

“When the verdict was announced it was traumatising for the family to relive the ordeal as the court has to go back and read everybody’s statements which took us on that crazy journey again.

“We all sat in court and wept because one thing we didn’t know was that the pathology report showed that Miscah had 70% burns on her body, and still she walked roughly more than 800m to the nearest door that could help her. That really tore us apart,“ Ms Vardien said.

“We are glad as a family that the journey is over so that the healing can begin because every single second month we had to sit in court and listen to all these lies and testimonies. Six years is a long time to put somebody to rest. The sentencing will be finalised on Friday June 7.”

The Cape Argus previously reported that Ms Fakier, who was also beaten during the ordeal, was hospitalised and managed to name her attacker before she died.

The State proved that Du Plessis had planned to murder Ms Fakier after he accused her of stealing drugs from him. At the Wynberg Regional Court on Friday, Du Plessis was found guilty of her murder.

His co-accused, Denzil du Plessis, 38, who is his cousin, was acquitted. He had pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said: “Accused number one was convicted and accused two was found not guilty. The case has been postponed to June 7 for sentencing.”

The Cape Argus previously reported that Ms Fakier’s murder trial was one of several across the province that had sat for years on the court roll, experiencing various delays due to the backlog of evidence, absenteeism of judicial staff, and the changing of defence counsel and administrative reasons.

Last month, the Western Cape Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety’s Court Watching Brief Unit reported that in the third quarter of 2023, it monitored 265 cases at 10 courts, which had jurisdiction over 35 police stations, and that the 265 cases were struck off the court roll due to systemic inefficiencies in the police. - Additional reporting by the Cape Argus.