A Manenberg man accused of viciously stabbing a farmworker to death and burning his body in a vullisblik has abandoned his bail application at the Athlone Magistrates Court.
Moeneeb Vardiem returned to court on Wednesday for the murder of Randall Robain in the Philippi farmlands nearly a year ago.
He was arrested earlier this month after being on the run from police.
At the time of Vardiem’s arrest, Randall’s hartseer mother Magdalene explained that her youngest son first went missing in January 2024 when he left him home to seek work on the Philippi farmlands along with his brother.
While his brother returned home, Randall waited at the farm and his family was later advised by farm workers that Randall was stabbed to death and set on fire.
Magdalene explains: “We were told that this suspect is a skollie from Manenberg and made him undress to see if my son had tjappies and when he didn’t have any, he was stabbed.”
Magdalene went to court with a heavy heart on Wednesday as they had just passed the one-year anniversary after her son’s death.
She adds: “Before court started, I went to the prosecutor and informed her that the family would like them to oppose bail.
“He came up and they said there was no bail for him. I was so relieved because it was a year this week since Randall was killed and I sat there with a swaar hart.’
During court proceedings, Vardiem told the court he wanted to abandon his bail application and the case was postponed to 9 April for further investigations.