Cape Town - Tazne Van Wyk, the 8-year-old girl from Elsies River who was brutally killed by Moyhdian Pangkaeker was on Wednesday hailed a courageous figure by Acting Judge Alan Maher.
Speaking Speaking in the Western Cape High Court, Judge Maher said: “Tazne spoke from beyond the grave by bravely fighting for her life and in so doing ended up incriminating the accused.”
Pangkaeker, 57, was found guilty of kidnap, rape, murder and mutilation of the little girl after she had gone missing from a tuckshop in Clare Street, Connaught Estate, Elsies River, on February 7, 2020.
Her decomposed body was found two weeks later in a stormwater drain off the N1 in Worcester.
Cheers from the community were heard from the gallery as her parents cried bittersweet tears for the guilty verdict, but still felt the pain of her loss.
“Like I said, I don’t know how I’m feeling, it just wasn’t easy but everything is coming to an end now, we’re just glad for that,” said Tazne’s mother, Carmen Van Wyk. “They need to do something about the system because it’s weak.
“How many children get kidnapped and die still today and nothing is happening so I think the system needs to change.”
Maher said State advocate Lenro Badenhorst had proved Pangkaeker’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt based on the circumstantial evidence.
In his analysis, he said: “By pointing out to the police where to find Tazne’s body, the accused placed himself at the scene of the crime. He also did so in his fabrication about being kidnapped as the story was concocted using certain facts which are now known to be true and which only he could’ve known.
“An incriminating detail in particular was his describing how the kidnappers placed Tazne in a water pipe not far from the garage.”
He added: “Another highly incriminating fact was that the accused told his sister that it was a muti killing – he must have known Tazne’s hand had been removed and the only way he could’ve known that fact was if he was the perpetrator.”
Maher further rejected parts of Pangkaeker’s version as improbable: “The only conceivable reason why the accused kidnapped an 8-year-old girl had been for the purposes of sexual gratification and his predilection for young children as sex objects is well established by the evidence. The accused raped Tazne.”
In a judgment that took three days to deliver, Maher further accepted the assertion that Tazne’s murder served as a “catalyst that opened the Pandora’s Box” for Pangkaeker’s other victims to tell their stories.
During the trial they testified about the sexual abuses they endured at the hands of the former bouncer, some of which happened almost two decades ago.
Pangkaeker was further found guilty of 17 of the 23 offences relating to his own family for over three years, including rape, sexual assault, kidnap, common assault, violating parole and indecent assault.
Maher said it was clear that based on the similar factual evidence, looking at the evidence as a whole instead of individually, he had displayed traits of a sexual predator.
“His modus operandi was clearly to keep his victims close at hand and to have them ready at hand to gratify his needs. Evidence showed the accused to be a sexual predator with a predilection for young children who went about assaulting and raping his victims. Clearly he had a high sex drive and easily intimidated his victims,” Maher said.
In describing Pangkaeker’s conduct during the trial, Maher observed: “The accused had a masked tendency to be facetious and not to answer questions; what was noteworthy was when it suited him, he had a near-perfect recollection and memory.
“On other occasions, he would say his memory was not so good or he had problems with remembering. He tended to do this when it suited him or when he felt cornered. He was a poor witness.”
Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum’s Sandy Lawrence said: “From February 8, 2020, it has been a long, hard painful journey but it was worth it and we would do it all over again. I haven’t yet spoken to the other victims, but on behalf of MPCF, we are so sorry for what they endured and the effects his actions have had on their lives.”
Tazne’s father, Terence Manuel, said: “Nothing is going to bring Tazne back but I’m satisfied to know that no other children will go through the same thing she went through. The fear the other victims lived under, at least they are free today because of one person – Tazne van Wyk.”