‘Close relative’ of murdered magistrate appears in court

An 18-year-old man, arrested in connection with the murder of magistrate Romay van Rooyen, 50, made a brief appearance in the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday September 29.

Cassidy Hartzenberg was arrested at his Mitchell’s Plain home on Tuesday September 27 by a multi-disciplinary operation team, including the Hawks’ Crimes Against the State Unit.

He is a “close relative” of Ms Van Rooyen and attended her funeral just days before his arrest.

Mr Hartzenberg opted for Legal Aid and the court heard that he intends to apply for bail. The State indicated that it was not ready to proceed with his bail application and the case was postponed to Thursday October 6. Mr Hartzenberg will remain in custody.

Ms Van Rooyen’s body was found by a relative at her Marina da Gama home in Red Roman Street on Saturday September 10, at 4.15pm.

She was declared dead at the scene. Her Toyota Rav 4 was missing but it was discovered in Mitchell’s Plain the day after her death, (“Police probe Marina da Gama magistrate’s murder”, Echo, September 15).

Outside court, Police Minister Bheki Cele, who attended the court proceedings, said the arrest of a suspect who was known to Ms Van Rooyen “was a turn of events that very few people would have expected.”

He said the case had been handed over to the Hawks two weeks ago.

It was a “great pity”, he said, that the young man that had appeared in court was a relative of Ms Van Rooyen.

Mr Cele said while the investigation is ongoing “they believed that they had more than a prima facie case” against the accused.

“The things we have done and the things we have put in place to take him to court makes us believe we have a very tight case,” he said.