Africa-Press – South-Africa. Hout Bay basketball coach Marvin Minnaar testified unexpectedly in the Western Cape High Court on Monday as his case for the murder of 12-year-old Sibusiso Dakuse went into a trial-within-a-trial over the validity of a police search of his bedroom.
Minnaar pleaded not guilty to the charges of the rape and murder of the promising young vocalist in February 2020, and on Monday, the court finally got a better sense of who he is.
With his slight frame nestled in a black puffer jacket, and his head shaven from years of awaiting trial in prison, Minnaar spoke about his dream of becoming a full-time basketball coach.
He left school in Grade 11 and went to study business management at a college that offered the course as an equivalent to matric.
He used to work at Woolworths as a casual during the holidays, but then he got a permanent job as a shelf-packer at Pick n Pay in Hout Bay.
In between, he worked as an assistant coach with the Hout Bay Snipers, which were quickly making a name for themselves on the Cape Town basketball circuit.
Minnaar loved what he was doing and wanted to go professional, so in January 2020, he took the plunge and resigned from his job at Pick n Pay to become a full-time coach.
By then, the club was coaching at two venues – the basketball courts opposite Imizamo Yethu and Silikamva High School.
It would be financially challenging because, without his salary, his family would have to rely on his grandfather’s social grant, but he was determined to forge his path in the basketball world.
His life came crashing down when he was arrested in connection with the rape and murder of the little boy who loved singing at the Kronendal Music Academy.
Minnaar had been pointed out as the last person to be seen with Sibusiso on 26 February 2020.
He is also suspected of being the person seen chasing after a little boy on CCTV footage captured on a footpath near a horse trail.
Sibusiso’s body was found in reeds off the footpath on 28 February 2020.
Minnaar had been cooperating with police and helped with the frantic search.
The day Sibusiso’s body was found, he was put in a police cell, questioned, and then taken to his grandfather’s house to pick up the clothes he wore the day Sibusiso went missing.
The CCTV footage shows the person chasing after the boy wore the Snipers’ number seven shirt, and the police told him they wanted to rule him out as a suspect.
“I didn’t know why I was being arrested or what was happening,” Minnaar said.
The reason for the trial-within-a-trial is that the two police officers who took him to his grandfather’s house to fetch his basketball shirt and shorts, testified Minnaar consented to the search.
His lawyer, Burger Brand, submitted in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act, the police needed a warrant to do this unless they were given permission by the person they were searching or if a delay would defeat the object of getting the warrant.
Minnaar not only flatly denied giving them consent but said they did not even ask.
Minnaar revealed his grandfather died recently and his funeral was this weekend. Dakuse’s granny, who he lived with during the week, had also died since the trial started.
The trial continues.
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