Cape Town - All eyes were on Moyhdian Pangkaeker in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday where he was subjected to the cold stares of murdered Tazne van Wyk’s parents who left the court in a state of rage after Pangkaeker claimed he was helpless when the little girl was abducted, but not by him.
The 8-year-old girl’s decomposing remains were found dumped in a storm water drain off the N1 in Worcester on February 19, 2020.
She disappeared on February 7, 2020 after she was abducted while on her way to a tuckshop in Ravensmead.
Pangkaeker faces charges of rape, murder and kidnapping after he allegedly led police to her remains, two days after he was arrested on February 17.
Explaining the events that led to him being caught on camera at a petrol station in Worcester, holding the Grade 3 learner’s hand, Pangkaeker said he saw Tazne speaking to “the guy at the tuckshop” the day she went missing but denied taking her.
Pangkakeker said he went back inside the house, came back to the shop to buy cigarettes and then went back inside the house where he was staying in Clare Street, Connaught Estate, Elsies River.
He departed from the house at about 4pm after he received a call to go to Worcester for a lift to a destination he did not disclose. “Over the main road, the taxi emerged while I was approaching. I walked over the road because the dogs were noisy and I wanted to get away from the dogs. That’s when I saw, here is Tazne,” Pangkaeker explained.
He said at that point, he was approached by a group of people whose origin caused him some confusion. They were driving in a partially pink minibus taxi with the driver and three passengers at the back.
“They asked me where Malawi Camp was; I told them I know where it is but I’m not going there,” he said.
His lawyer, advocate Saleem Halday, asked him how he spoke to them. He said: “That’s what confused me because they couldn’t speak my language, so how could I communicate?”
He said that the woman in the taxi offered him money to direct them towards the informal settlement but he declined. The woman then asked him where he was going and offered to give him a lift, all while Tazne stood by and listened in on the conversation with the door open.
He said: “Now Tazne answered, she said ‘no, we’ll take you, we’ll take you’. I said no but I don’t know where, (she said), ‘no but we know where, we know where’. So I told her, you say you ‘know where’ as if we’re going there.”
He said they spoke among themselves and indicated that Tazne knew where they were going but he interjected and said ‘“she doesn’t know”. He testified that he didn’t know why she said that.
“At that time they opened the sliding door of the taxi and she went in first, so I had to follow her.”
When advocate Halday asked him why he said he “had” to get in, he responded, “She was already inside, what must I do?”
Tazne’s parents stormed out of the high court, understandably furious.
Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum’s Sandy Lawrence, who has been at almost every court appearance, described the trial as “soul destroying”.