The mother of murdered six-year-old Saadiqa Lippert left the court smiling after her daughter’s alleged killers were denied bail.
The Athlone Magistrates’ Court yesterday found it wouldn’t be in the interest of justice to release suspects Samier Slamang and Wayland Botha from prison.
The little girl was hit in the stomach by a stray bullet during a gang-related shooting in Bokmakierie in May.
She later died in Groote Schuur hospital.
Yesterday her mother, Chimeiz France, told the Daily Voice although she’s still sad, she now has reason to smile.
“From the start I knew they wouldn’t get bail,” she says.
“Witnesses identified them, not by their clothes, but by their faces. I knew God was in control,” she says.
According to EWN, the magistrate, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, said there were two determining factors which led her to deny bail.
She said the accused continued to commit crime even while in police custody.
At their last court appearance on 28 June, police allegedly found “a substantial amount” of tik on them.
The matter was heard in a different court yesterday.
In addition, the magistrate said Slamang and Botha, who are both alleged thugs, can easily identify the State’s witnesses due to the information that emerged during the cross-examination of investigating officer Daniel Solomons.
The magistrate said it is likely that there could be another shooting if the suspects are released, placing even more people in danger.
Saadiqa was shot and killed while standing in her ouma’s driveway in 9th Avenue, Bokmakierie, on May 2, when two men came running down the street firing guns.
She was visiting for the weekend and was packing her bags into a car when she was hit in the stomach.
Her grandmother Maliekah Windell-Hendricks said Slamang and Botha often visited Saadiqa’s Kewtown home.
Prosecutor Xolani Ntozini told the court the shooting was gang- and drug-related.