A police widow described her anger and sadness on Tuesday at the loss of her husband in the 2006 Jeppestown massacre.

"I am angry! They took the best thing I had in my life... my best friend, my colleague... they just took him away," Leonie van Heerden told the Johannesburg High Court

"I miss his jokes."

Van Heerden, herself a police Inspector, was testifying ahead of sentencing of the men convicted of gunning down her husband.

Frederick Jacobus van Heerden and three colleagues were killed in the massacre in June 2006.

It was when asked to describe the effects of her husband's death on her two young children that she broke down, prompting Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng to briefly adjourn the case to allow her time to compose herself.

An agonising wait

"They were greatly traumatised. They miss their father every day of their lives, and a day doesn't go by without my son asking why his father was shot," Van Heerden said.

She was among the officers who had engaged in a stand-off with a group of 20 armed men who had robbed the Honeydew Pick 'n Pay supermarket hours earlier.

For about four hours, she had to wait outside 54 Mordaunt street, nursing a wound inflicted by the gunmen, hoping that her husband and colleagues would come out alive.

"I prayed all the time... felt hopeless not knowing if they were still alive... I just prayed," she told the court.

She said her husband's death had also resulted in financial difficulties as she was now left to fend for their 12-year-old daughter and a son aged 7 on her own.

Before going onto the witness stand, she sat quietly in the public gallery clutching her slain husband's wedding band attached to a necklace.

The mastermind of the robbery

Shaking her head in disbelief, she also had to listen as one of the defence advocates asked the court for mercy when passing sentence.

"I submit these are serious charges... but sentencing should not be used to destroy the life of the accused. At 29 he [Senzo Emmanuel Mweli] is still young.... and has three young children, two of them with unemployed mothers," advocate Tumelo Ntshwane said.

He said Mokgoatlheng should also consider the fact that Mweli had already spent two years behind bars.

Mweli, who is believed to have masterminded the Pick n Pay robbery, was last week convicted on charges of aggravated robbery and attempted murder.

His co-accused were convicted on similar charges, including those of murder, possession of a prohibited firearm [AK47], possession of unlicenced firearms, and possession of ammunition.

A mistake Mokgoatlheng made when convicting Mweli last week also became a matter of contention in court during proceedings. Advocate Robin Stranscham-Ford, who was standing in for Ntshwane at the time, said Mokgoatlheng had acted unconstitutionally in convicting Mweli on charges he was never charged with. These relate to 12 charges of murder and those relating to firearms and ammunition.

"There were irregularities... the defence doesn't accept that this was a mistake, in so doing your lordship pre-judged the matter. Your lordship went beyond convicting him and that is unacceptable," Stranscham-Ford said.

The judge’s denial

He said they would take the matter up with the appeals court after Judge Mokgoatlheng denied prejudicing Mweli, dismissing an application by the defence to have him acknowledge that on record.

This followed a special application by the defence to have Mokgoatlheng "enter on record irregularities made".

The case could not be set down for Wednesday as some of the advocates in the matter have other cases to attend to.

Mokgoatlheng had suggested that two advocates, who would be engaged elsewhere on Wednesday, be represented by other advocates, but their clients Nkosinathi Mzamo Mchunu and Sizwe Mbuyazi refused.

Mokgoatlheng then postponed the case to 24 November as it was the only date accommodating all parties involved.

Sapa