The Western Cape High Court was in shock on Wednesday as horrific details of Mohydien Pangaker’s alleged sex crimes against children were revealed in the years leading up to the murder of Tazne Van Wyk.
Gasps were heard in the courtroom when state prosecutor Lenro Badenhorst revealed that the state had amended the indictment to include 27 charges of rape, murder, assault, incest and the sexual grooming of children.
The much-anticipated murder trial of the eight-year-old girl from Ravensmead got underway with her grieving parents the first to take the stand as state witnesses.
The Grade 3 pupil from Eurecon Primary School went missing on 7 February 2020 when she was snatched just metres from her home in Clare Street, Ravensmead.
Pangaker was later arrested in Cradock in the Eastern Cape and while being escorted back to Cape Town, he told cops where to find her body.
The child’s remains were found dumped in a stormwater drain in Worcester.
Court documents revealed that Tazne had been raped, killed and her hand cut off just a day after she went missing.
According to the indictment, Pangaker’s crimes date back to 1993 when he first sexually assaulted his 13-year-old niece while she was asleep.
Ten years later he allegedly tried to pay his own granddaughter to have sex with him but she declined.
In 1990, he married and the couple had a daughter. They later separated and his ex-wife started a new relationship.
The shocking documents claim that Pangaker allegedly raped his young daughter multiple times between 2016 and 2019 and impregnated her.
He reunited with her mother but when her mother learned about the child abuse, she left him.
The daughter later gave birth to a baby boy and according to the charge sheet, he also faces an incest charge as a result.
Just a few months before Tazne was murdered, Pangaker allegedly raped another relative in Worcester and threatened to kill her.
He argued with his daughter who had threatened to leave him and he allegedly attacked her.
The daughter was hospitalised and Pangaker was arrested but given bail and later failed to appear in court, running away to Ravensmead.
He faces a total of 12 rape charges, two counts of kidnapping, three counts of sexual assault, and charges of grooming and sexually exploiting children.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Badenhorst told the court that the state had a strong case against Pangaker and would submit cellphone records, video footage and statements by his family implicating him in the murder of Tazne.
“The state will call a minor, who saw the accused with the deceased near the Hawaiian Fisheries,” he said.
“Mr Right, who is a taxi driver, will testify that the accused boarded a taxi to Parow station on the day.
“The state will also call the twin sister of the accused, Nazley Pangaker. She phoned the accused before he was arrested and there was an eight-minute phone call that was recorded with certain admissions.
“She also visited the accused in prison where he gave a version of events.”
Badenhorst showed the court CCTV footage taken from a petrol station on the N1 Highway on 7 February 2020 showing a man and a little girl walking.
Tears flowed as relatives in the gallery identified the child carrying a bottle of water as Tazne.
Dad Terence told the court that he knew it was his daughter: “I can see by the way she walks.”
This is believed to be the moment she was last seen alive.
Court proceedings were brought to a halt when Tazne’s mom, Carmen, broke down in the dock when questioned about the day she last saw her daughter.
“She was very obedient. She did very good [at school]. Very loving, caring but also a person for herself,” Carmen managed to say before she burst out into tears.
The parents testified that they had only seen Pangaker once before their daughter’s disappearance and he was not friends with the family.
The case continues.