Attorney of woman accused of killing Pretty Mahlangu says he advised her not to apologise immediately after the incident
Kineil Muthray said it was too soon, and he did not want to further aggrieve the family.
His client, 68-year-old Martha van der Walt, is facing charges of culpable homicide; she was released on R5,000 bail on Friday by the Germiston Magistrates Court.
The Germiston Magistrates Court heard how the State still needed to get a post-mortem report and download the video footage which captured the incident.
Pretty Mahlangu's family expressed disappointment when they saw the woman walk free, saying she had no remorse as she still had not apologised.
READ: Attorney of woman accused of killing Pretty Mahlangu says they have different version of incident
Muthray said that earlier in July, Van der Walt wanted to reach out to the family, but he advised her against it.
"I advise that it's an open wound, it's really difficult and it's not going to feature very well if they are going to reach out to the family at this stage. I did request that the investigating officer facilitate this during the first matter that wasn't enrolled. He said that he would do that, but he also said it would be difficult."
He added that the accused also wanted to help with financial support for the young girl's family.
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'The prosecution could not distinguish between clerical mistakes and criminal conduct,' Magistrate Keswa ruled. 'Assumptions and administrative discrepancies cannot be used to build a case without clear evidence of intent.' Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ SARS Case Unravels The SARS prosecution had alleged that Manthata's company manipulated its tax returns to avoid paying nearly R19 million in VAT and other obligations. But defence attorney Pierre du Toit successfully argued that there was no evidence of fraud, deception, or intent to mislead SARS.'This case is not about millions of rands, it is about millions of assumptions,' Du Toit told the court during closing arguments. 'The burden is on the State to prove guilt, and it has failed to do so in spectacular fashion.' He cited landmark cases including *State versus Prinsloo* and *State versus Futche*, which require a demonstration of clear intent to commit fraud — a standard the court agreed had not been officials admitted under cross-examination that they had no direct proof of falsified entries, and Rose testified that all bookkeeping was done using standard software and practices. 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