This was the repeated defence by Prem Emmanuel Basdeo’s legal representative Piet Pistorius as the State brought three more witnesses to the stand in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, on Wednesday.
The State first submitted video footage from the Lyttelton Community Policing Forum, showing one of the couple’s vehicles emerging from a field around Van Ryneveld, Centurion, area at odd hours.This was followed by testimony from Diane Naicker, Dawn’s eldest daughter, who testified about her last interactions with her mother in the days before the family eventually reported her missing on June 8, 2018.
“When we asked Prem how come mom had left without her handbag he told us she had taken a smaller bag with one credit card and R2000 in cash. He told us the rest of her bank cards he had kept for her.” Despite this, Pistorius continued to question witnesses about their knowledge of Dawn’s difficulties with severe mental illness and, more worryingly, information of her enquiring about her insurance policies.