Mother and her children accused of killing Kabega Park man remanded in custody

The three family members -  a mother, her daughter and son, who are accused of brutally killing a 70-year-old Kabega Park man last week, appeared before the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court on Monday.

The mother, Christine Rossouw (55) and her children, Chantal (35) and Wayne (31), pleaded not guilty to the charge of killing 70-year-old Petrus Scholtz.

The case was postponed to the 30th of July to allow for further investigations.

The accused were remanded in custody, but indicated that they will seek to be released on bail.

"It is alleged that on Tuesday evening, last week, Petrus Scholtz left home to attend to a customer in Kabega Park, Port Elizabeth," described police spokesperson, Col Priscilla Naidu.

"He did electrical repairs in his own time.

"On Thursday morning, his body was found in bushes on a gravel Road between Willow and Yellowood Roads in Fairview, Walmer."
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According to police information, at about 08:00 on Thursday, a person walking to work stumbled on Scholtz’s body lying in bushes alongside the road.

"Both his hands and feet were bound with a nylon cord and his head covered and severely beaten. Police have opened a murder case."

Col Naidu said that since the discovery, police followed up on several leads and on Friday evening, at about 18:30, a team led by Mount Road Cluster Detective Commander, Col Paul Orange, Walmer detectives and Hawks in Port Elizabeth arrested three at a house in Woltemade Street, in Kabega Park.

"Circumstances and motive for Scholtz’s murder is yet to be established.

"Police recovered most of Scholtz’s possessions including his tools and the vehicle, a blue Isuzu double Cab. The vehicle was allegedly sold to a person in North End and was seized on Saturday morning," she added.

"The suspects will appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court on Monday."

SAPS Provincial Commissioner, Lt Gen Liziwe Ntshinga, welcomed the arrests and encouraged the public to continue to report any suspicious behaviour in their neighbourhoods.

"We cannot allow criminals to commit crime on innocent law abiding citizens. We need to remove them from society so that people can live without any fear of being attacked. Our investigating team has been working around the clock and have followed up on all information in their endeavours to arrest the suspect/s. Their investigation and hard work has yielded results," she added.