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| Progressive Women of Westlake and the Reeva Steenkamp Foundation protested outside the Wynberg Magistrates Court. |
During his bail application in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, Mzuvukile Poni admitted to Magistrate Goolam Bowa that he stabbed Vuyiseka Poni on January 2.
She apparently fled her home and Poni chased after her, allegedly repeatedly stabbing her in a friend's house. Poni, a project administrator, said he would plead guilty, with reasons, but elected to remain silent on the merits of the case.
He could not recall how many times he stabbed her, and claimed he was never told she had died due to her wounds. He told the court the couple had three children, aged 12, 6 and one, who are now in the care of his mother. He had a fourth child with another woman.
One of his daughters had had a liver transplant and her health had deteriorated since his arrest, he said.
The matter was postponed to March 14, when the investigating officer is expected to testify. Outside court, pink balloons blew in the wind in memory of Reeva Steenkamp and Vuyiseka Poni.
Carrying placards reading, "No bail for killers" and "Women of Westlake say no to domestic violence and murder", the group - comprising members of the Reeva Steenkamp Foundation and the NGO Progressive Women of Westlake - chanted and sang.
The Reeva Steenkamp Foundation joined the Westlake organisation to commemorate four years since the 29-year-old model's murder.
Foundation CEO and Reeva's cousin Kim Martin told News24 on Monday that the Poni case struck a chord with her. She believed it would be a fitting way to honour her cousin and the fight against violence.
In the early hours of February 14, 2013, Paralympian Oscar Pistorius shot Steenkamp four times through the locked door of the toilet in his Silver Woods Country Estate home.
He claimed he thought there was an intruder behind the door about to emerge and harm him, and that Reeva was still in bed.
Judge Thokozile Masipa originally sentenced Pistorius to five years for culpable homicide. The Supreme Court of Appeal overturned his guilty verdict, and replaced it with a murder conviction.
In July last year, Masipa resentenced him and handed him a six-year jail term. She rejected the State’s bid for leave to appeal the sentence, which it argued was too lenient.
Martin said Reeva's parents Barry and June would be spending the fourth anniversary of their daughter's death the same way they have since 2014 on a Port Elizabeth beach where they and their loved ones will scatter rose petals on the water.