Success: 87-year-old man found guilty of murdering his wife after Private Prosecution Unit intervenes
Today in the High Court in Johannesburg, Judge Réan Strydom found Dieter Bergs (87) guilty of the premeditated murder of his wife Genèe Bergs in 2014. Bergs was also found guilty of forgery, possession of an unlicensed firearm, possession of ammunition, uttering and obstruction of justice. The court made this ruling under Section 77 of the Criminal Procedure Act by finding on a balance of probabilities that the evidence and testimony presented by the state that Bergs killed his wife is the most likely course of events. AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit assisted the family of Bergs in terms of a watching brief.
“We are delighted with the verdict, even though it took eight years for Dieter Bergs to finally be brought to book. I am terribly relieved that we finally got justice,” says Sue Mennie, the daughter of Genèe Bergs.
This judgment finally follows after the Private Prosecution Unit became involved in the matter in 2019 after the magistrate, who presided over the inquest into Genèe’s death, approached them with a concern about the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) irrational actions to not to be prosecuted. The finding of the inquest court was also that Bergs could prima facie be held liable for Geneè’s death. Nevertheless, the NPA failed to prosecute him for years.
After the unit made representations to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in April 2020 that Bergs should be prosecuted, the DPP ordered that Bergs be prosecuted and he was to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court in December 2020 on these charges. He had to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court in December 2020 on these charges. He was released on bail on that occasion and the case was transferred to the High Court.
However, based on a psychiatric report from Sterkfontein, Bergs was found to be unfit to stand trial. The NPA subsequently instituted prosecution under Section 77 of the Criminal Procedure Act. This means that the court must make a finding on a balance of probabilities as to whether Bergs is guilty of various crimes, which entails a lighter burden of proof than in ordinary criminal cases. However, the court emphasised, and it was also stated in the report, that Bergs was fully able to comprehend his actions when he committed the crime and was able to realise the consequences of his actions.
Bergs will be held for the rest of his life as a state president’s patient in an institution frail care patients. He cannot inherit from his deceased wife either, according to the maxim “the bloody hand does not inherit”. Her assets will now pass to her remaining family.
“According to all indications, this case would have only disappeared if AfriForum had not gotten involved and forced the NPA to prosecute. However, we want to commend adv. Michelle Bayat, who handled the prosecution in the High Court on the way in which she handled the case,” says Adv. Phyllis Vorster, prosecutor at AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit.
Read the previous statement here.
