Former geologist Cobus Prinsloo was sentenced 13 years ago for the murder of his wife Cordelia, who was hit from behind with a garden spade while she was admiring her garden.
Despite being sentenced to 25 years in jail, he is still fighting to prove his innocence.
Prinsloo did not partake in the actual killing, as his gardener at the time, Lucas Moloi, was the one who hit Cordelia. But Moloi maintained that he did so on Prinsloo’s instructions, which the court believed at the time.
Although he took his sentence with a smile on May 30, 2013, in the Pretoria High Court, Prinsloo vowed to fight for his innocence. When his bid to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) failed, he turned to the Constitutional Court, where he was also unsuccessful.
As he had exhausted all his legal remedies, Prinsloo had to spend a large portion of his jail sentence behind bars. He was, however, subsequently released on parole.
Moloi, who received an 18-year jail sentence at the time, later recanted his trial evidence, claiming he had acted alone and was coerced by the investigating officer to implicate Prinsloo.
Acting on this turn of events, Prinsloo petitioned Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi in terms of Section 327 of the Criminal Procedure Act, relying on what he alleged to be further evidence that materially affected his conviction.
The minister refused his petition to allow further evidence, which he said proves his innocence. This prompted Prinsloo to, in the latest turn of events, turn to court to review her decision.
According to him, the minister failed to consider the new evidence, and she failed to explain why the new evidence did not materially affect his conviction.
In opposing the review application, the minister argued that the matter was properly considered by her. She said three courts, including the SCA and the ConCourt, had already pronounced Prinsloo’s guilt and that the new evidence did not justify referring the matter back to the trial court after all these years.
Cordelia Prinsloo.
But in a recent judgment, the High Court found that the minister’s reasons were inadequate. The court said that without proper reasons from her, it is difficult to understand how she concluded that the new revelations by Moloi did not materially affect Prinsloo’s conviction.
The review application was postponed, and the minister was ordered to provide reasons for her refusal.
During the trial 13 years ago, Moloi explained how, on the morning of November 13, 2011, while she was watering plants on the plot north of Pretoria, he had hit her from behind.
The judge at the time accepted his version that Prinsloo promised him a house and R50,000 for killing her.
Moloi buried Cordelia in a flower bed on the plot. Her body was “discovered” two days later by Prinsloo.
Prinsloo, during the trial, said that the day after she went missing, he had continued looking for her until he discovered “the foot of a white woman” sticking out from a flower bed on his Kameeldrift plot.
Prinsloo said he had gone around the fence of the property when he suddenly got wind of a bad smell.
“I am a professional hunter, and I know the smell of meat going bad. I followed the smell, and I saw flies in a flower bed inside the garden around the house. I was in shock because I knew something was wrong. I saw the leaves of a delicious monster plant packed on top of the soil. I lifted it and saw a brown canvas. It was then that I saw the leg of a white woman sticking out,” an emotional Prinsloo testified.
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