Mahikeng - Two men convicted of killing Coligny teenager Matlhomola Mosweu must be handed a lengthy sentence, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said on Monday.
Members of the EFF packed the North West High Court in Mahikeng ahead of sentencing procedures in the case against Pieter Doorewaard, 27, and Phillip Schutte, 34, which is expected to get underway on Monday morning.
"We are appealing to the court to serve justice to Matlhomola Mosweu, by sentencing them 15 years in jail. We want nothing less than 15 years," said EFF Ngaka Modiri Molema regional secretary Dintwe Mekgwe.
There was a commotion in the public gallery when EFF supporters objected to journalist Susan Cilliers taking their picture ahead of the court proceedings.
"You are not one of us, take the whites behind us, not us. Delete that picture, sister delete that picture, " said one woman, wagging a finger at Cilliers.
A security official restored order after which members of the public order policing unit were called into the court.
EFF members wanted a journalist not to take their pictures.
Video: Molaole Montsho/African News Agency (ANA)
Judge Ronnie Hendricks found Doorewaard and Schutte guilty in October last year.
The infamous Coligny sunflower murder case resumes in the wake of reports that star witness Bonakele Pakisi admitted to having lied in court during his testimony.
He is the only person who witnessed the incident. During his testimony, Pakisi said Mosweu was thrown from a moving van.
A report in a Sunday Afrikaans newspaper stated that Pakisi confessed to a local church minister that he had lied.
Doorewaard and Schutte claimed he jumped out of the moving van when they were taking him to the Coligny police after they found him stealing sunflower seeds from their employer's sunflower fields at Rietvlei farm.
The State was expected to call three witnesses to testify in aggravation of sentence and the defence was expected to address the court afterwards.