A Visit to Saeed Basanda at Kgoši Mampuru Correctional Centre
On Thursday morning, I went to visit Saeed Basanda at Kgoši Mampuru
Correctional Centre in Pretoria it was my second visit to him, and things went
much better. He was happy to see me, and I think the reason was that I had
given him a Bible in Arabic to read.
I gave Arabic Bibles to him and accused number two in the trial court at
the Palace of Justice in Pretoria. The female police sergeant carried out her
duties as guardian of the integrity of the court and the safety of the
prisoners very thoroughly and meticulously. What did she do? She took each
Bible and leafed through it, from back to front, and from front to back,
looking for concealed material. She then shook it, trying to dislodge anything
that might have been hidden inside. She found nothing because I had hidden nothing.
I had no reason to do such a thing. She then handed an Arabic Bible to each of
them.
They were overwhelmed with surprise and joy.
My first visit took Saeed completely by surprise, and he did not know what
had hit him. On the many occasions I had seen him in court, from the Cullinan
Magistrate's Court to the High Court in Pretoria [the Palace of Justice], I had
not exchanged a single word with him. I had not thought it necessary.
He is accused number one in
the case involving the murders of the three Coptic Church monks in Cullinan. The
murders took place on or about 12 March 2024, when three Egyptian Coptic
Orthodox monks were murdered at the Monastery of Saint Mark the Apostle and
Saint Samuel the Confessor in Cullinan, east of Pretoria, South Africa. The
Victims were:
·
Father Hegumen Takla
el-Samuely
·
Father Yostos Ava Markos and
·
Father Mina Ava Markos
All three monks were found
dead with stab wounds. A fourth person survived after being struck with an iron
rod. The motive is unclear. The two suspects, now accused number one and
accused number two, are Egyptian citizens.
During one of the court adjournments, I was standing next to a priest who
was talking to Saeed. Once again, I did not say anything to him.
While speaking to the priest, Saeed told him how lonely he was. Since the
incident, they had been arrested and he had had no contact whatsoever with his
family or friends in Egypt. They knew nothing about what had happened to him,
and he had no idea what had happened to them in the meantime.
While he was talking to the priest and telling him all this, I decided that
I would go and visit him. In the meantime, I was not saying a word to him.
That was when I visited him for the first time.
When he first saw me, he was happy, but he soon became deeply suspicious of
me. What were the reasons me visiting him out of the blue?
Was I perhaps a spy? Had the State Advocate sent me? Had the lawyer
representing accused number two sent me? Had the investigating police officer
sent me? Had the Coptic Church perhaps sent me?
No. A thousand times, no! Nobody had sent me.
When I made that decision in court, I told nobody about it.
Afterwards, I thought about the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of the
Living God, had something to say about visiting people in prison. But what
exactly did He say? What is written in Scripture?
Matthew 25, verses 31 to 46.
“31 When the Son of man shall
come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the
throne of his glory:
32 and before him shall be
gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a
shepherd divided his sheep from the goats:
33 and he shall set the sheep
on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say
unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 for I was hungered, and ye
gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye
took me in:
36 naked, and ye clothed me: I
was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison,
and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or
thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a
stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or
when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer
and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it
unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto
them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 for I was an hungered, and
ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye
took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye
visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them,
saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of
these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” [emphasis
added]
Now, you need to tread very carefully when you read this, because it could
have serious implications for your future. Christ nowhere explicitly commands
me, as His disciple, to visit sick people. Nor does He explicitly command me,
as His disciple, to visit prisoners.
It seems to me that He has put into effect the implicit expectation
underlying His command that we should love our fellow human beings: He expects
us to demonstrate our humanity by visiting the sick. He expects us to visit
prisoners.
It really does not matter why they are behind bars.
It does not matter whether they have already been convicted.
The circumstances that led to their imprisonment are irrelevant. The
expectation is that you visit them.
Eish!! I am trapped, and I am personally guilty.
Eish!! This is not comfortable.
This man is a human being, and he longs for his family, far away in Egypt.
He struggles to speak English.
When I saw him for the second time the other day, it was a different story.
He asked me to buy soap and soft drinks for him from the prison shop.
Soap? He wants to wash himself. Hygiene? I am now concerned about his
personal hygiene.
I had to make the additional effort of walking to the shop to buy the
items, then walking back to give them to him. They were then examined again,
and even the till receipt was carefully scrutinised to ensure that the items
had indeed just been purchased from the prison shop.
During the proceedings in the High Court, the official post-mortem report
for each victim was submitted. These reports showed that the three monks had
sustained a combined total of 110 stab wounds.
The exact number of stab wounds inflicted on each person was as follows:
·
Father/Hegumen Takla
el-Samuely: 26 stab wounds to the chest.
·
Father Mina Ava Markos: 37
stab wounds.
·
Father Yostos Ava Markos: 47
stab wounds.
The State prosecutor described the attack in court as an absolute case of
"overkill" because of the extreme violence used. The violence was so
severe that the blades of two meat knives broke off at the handles.
When I read that the state pathologists had documented a combined total of
110 stab wounds, there can be no doubt that this was a case of murder.
The case has now reached the point where both the State and the Defence
have closed their cases. On 10 November 2026, the lawyers are due to present
their closing arguments to the Honourable Judge.
Are they guilty as charged? Or not guilty?
Has the State proved its case against the two accused, or has it failed to
do so? I am referring here only to the charges relating to the three murders. I
am not referring to any other charges against the two accused.
Murder in a Monastery?
This made me think of Umberto Eco's seminal work, IN THE NAME OF THE ROSE,
which I read in Dutch many years ago.
Murders in a monastery?
Horrific. Unthinkable.
Who does such a thing?
Where does the idea of committing murder in a monastery even come from?
Three monks in a single night?
Horrifying.
It was major news when the murders came to light in 2024. But what is
happening now, in the second half of 2026, almost three years after the
murders? Do you think hundreds of people are attending the court proceedings?
Think again.
That is certainly not the case.
Barely ten people attend on a consistent basis.
I knew Father Takla personally, and it was an almost unbearable shock to me
when I heard of his gruesome slaughter.
Now, I wait anxiously to hear what the lawyers will argue on 10 November
2026.
After that, we must wait for the learned judge to prepare his judgment and
deliver it on whatever date he may determine.
I ask everyone who reads this account to reflect seriously on this case—not
merely to give it a passing thought, but to engage in deep and serious
reflection—and then to pray about it.
I believe that those involved in the determination of this case need wisdom
and discernment.
Please write to me at neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za
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