Witness D’s alleged Killer Matiphandile Sotheni is returns to court

Indexed: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]And staying with the courts, witness D, um, in the Midrand commission, as alleged killer Matipandila Soteni, also returning to court for bail. Soteni accused of killing Marius van der Merwe in December last year. His bail hearing set down for 3 days. Alpha Ramushwana, EWN reporter, is there for us. Alpha, good afternoon to you. Take us through that bail application.

[00:00:23]Good afternoon, Mandy. Uh, Matipandila Soteni's legal team has been making arguments for Soteni to be released on bail. The state is, of course, opposing his release, and we're finally getting a sense of Matipandila Soteni's version of accounts of what happened to Marius van der Merwe, whom we've come to know as witness D. He doesn't deny knowing Marius van der Merwe and having some sort of relationship with him. He said they met in about 2019, and between 2019 and 2022, they would regularly just have phone call conversations about, uh, Matipandila's shooting experiences. You would know he was a a police sniper at the South African, at the special task force in the South African Police Service. And so, he says, uh, in November last year, Marius, uh, van, uh, Vian Pretorius, rather, who, uh, died by suicide last year after being implicated at the Midrand commission, called him and asked to take a drive with him around Brakpan. They drove a couple of times around Brakpan, Mandy, according to Matipandila Soteni. And, uh, on one of these days, they just drove past his home a couple of times.

[00:01:30]So, according to him, Vian Pretorius used him as a decoy in some sort of way in his plan to kill Vian, uh, Marius van der Merwe. And he says on the day that he was killed, he was at home, and he learned on TV that witness D had been killed. He had nothing to do with his murder. He did know, though, that, uh, Vian Pretorius did want witness D dead, but says he wasn't involved at all. He learned on TV at his home that he had been killed. And so, he's pleading um, innocence. He's claiming that he had nothing to do with the murder. And we're going to hear the outcome later today, Mandy, but the state really is opposing his release on bail. Let's take a listen to what some of the charges he's facing are. Being a license holder of firearms did unlawfully and or negligently fail to store ammunition in accordance with the provisions of the act. And whereas the ammunition was found in his premises, that is in the kitchen, it was 125 rounds of an R5 rifle ammunition. Count 12, provision of section contravention of provision contravention of section 120 subsection 8 subsection 8 right to section 1117 of Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000.

[00:02:46]My thanks to Orrin Mashona, EWN reporter, for the latest from the bail application for Matipandila as attorney accused of killing Witness Lee.