Amy-Leigh de Jager kidnapping: Accused teacher ‘at peace’
The family of an accused in the kidnapping of Amy-Leigh de Jager says they are slowly coming to terms with the woman's fate.
Speaking outside the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, Tharina Human's dad said the family had faced tough times since the ordeal but not all is lost.
Human (27) and her co-accused Laetitia Nel (40), Pieter van Zyl (50) and Molemohi Bafokeng (24) made a brief appearance on charges of kidnapping and extortion after they allegedly snatched 6-year-old Amy-Leigh de Jager from her mother outside her school last year.
De Jager was grabbed outside Kollegepark Primary School and returned to her family 24 hours later.
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The televangelist and his two co-accused Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho have pleaded not guilty to the more than 90 charges against them, which range from rape to sexual assault and human trafficking. The 30-year-old Andisiwe Dike continued her testimony on Tuesday morning, telling the court how Omotoso was a different person at home compared to who he was at church.
"It is going well with her, she's longing for her daughter and missing her to death," says Human's dad, Riaan Botha.
Botha adds that Human's daughter has made peace with the arrest.
"She did accept it, she made peace with it," said Botha.
"At one of her visits in prison, she gave wardens gifts when we came out - and said to the sergeants 'thank you for looking so good after my mom, she could have been dead and I wouldn't have seen her. Now I see her behind a glass, but I know she's alive’."
The case against four accused has been postponed to 27 March for a trial date to be set in the High Court in Johannesburg.
Nel is out on bail while the other three have been remanded in custody.