The cop who first responded the day that Christel Moseadie’s naked body was found in her home in Hout Bay, was given a tongue-lashing by judge Monde Samela at the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
Sergeant Tshimangadzo Netshiavha was put in the hot seat regarding his helpfulness as a SAPS officer in the murder and rape investigation of the 36-year-old woman.
Christel’s body was found wrapped in a curtain with pants around her neck on November 7, 2019.
Her cousin Andrew Moseadie, who was 19 at the time, was arrested for her rape and murder.
The court heard that family members went to look for Christel after she failed to respond to their text messages.
State witness Elsabie Oliphant, who was the last person to see her friend alive, said she borrowed travelling money to get to work from Christel, but when she returned with the money the next day, her door was locked.
“Andrew said she was already gone to work,” Elsabie testified.
Next in the witness box was Netshiavha.
The sergeant was one of the first respondents after Christel’s younger sister Janine asked cops to kick down the door and check inside her house.
According to Netshiavha, he couldn’t do this because they couldn’t risk a civil case being made against SAPS.
So instead, the cop and his partner scanned around the house and left after telling the family that they would return “if anything happened”.
An irate Samela wanted to know from the cop if he really thought he executed his duties to the best of his abilities and said it was because of reasons like this that the public doesn’t trust SAPS.
“Up until the time you returned and called another officer to take over the crime scene, you did absolutely nothing. You didn’t help the family.
“As a police officer, you need to listen to the people and if you are doing a case like this you do it thoroughly.”
The case continues.