A courageous elderly couple from Heideveld on Thursday told a court how they were tied up and held at gunpoint by their domestic worker Anne Demas and her gang of thugs.
Fatiema and Albert Frantz were among the many victims of Anne Demas, 38, who received a 15-year jail sentence for her role in a spate of armed robberies in Athlone and Manenberg.
Anne Demas was convicted in October 2018 after she came clean about how she preyed on pensioners by gaining their trust and then staging armed robberies carried out by her lover and his friends.
The woman entered into a plea deal with the State, while her boyfriend fled Cape Town.
Their alleged getaway driver, Thandi Mpekula, is now on trial and appeared before Magistrate Karel Meyer on Friday where Fatiema, 72, took the stand.
In her testimony, Fatiema said Demas was hired several days before Christmas in 2015 as she begged the elderly couple for work so she could buy her daughter a Christmas outfit.
Albert, 78, instructed her not to come after Christmas celebrations as they would be visiting relatives, but she returned on 27 December and told them she forgot to clean two windows on the porch.
They allowed her in and while Fatiema ironed the family’s clothes and Albert drank coffee, they were overpowered by Demas’ boyfriend and two armed men.
Mpekula was identified by Fatiema during an ID parade.
Fatiema told the court how she looked Mpekula in the face as he held a gun to her head and tied her arms and legs with shoelaces, while Demas and her berk ransacked their home, stealing clothes, R8000 cash, TVs, laptops, groceries and the couple’s grey Toyota Etios.
She said they were not beaten, but says she was left living in fear after the attack.
Demas was arrested in 2016 after they robbed and beat up an 87-year-old pensioner from Primrose Park. Demas was caught in a sting operation carried out by Sergeant Daryl van Noie at Vangate Mall. The cop had posed as a single teacher looking for a domestic worker, and love.
The trial continues.
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