THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL OF SOUTH AFRICA JUDGMENT

6Leigh converse over the fence and then saw the latter cross over to the front ofthe appellant’s house. Ms Jacobs saw Sasha Leigh follow the appellant towardsthe backyard. She did not see Sasha Leigh re-emerge. She was the one who hadtold Sasha Leigh’s grandmother that she had seen Sasha Leigh at house no 45.[16] According to Ms Jacobs, a short while after Sasha Leigh’s grandmotherhad left house no 45, the appellant emerged and stood at the front of the house,wearing a white t-shirt. He went back into the yard, came out a short while laterwearing a jersey and proceeded to walk down the road.[17] During the time that she and the other members of her family had been onthe front porch Ms Jacobs did not see a bakkie arrive at the appellant’s house tooffload a refrigerator. She, her mother and two sisters remained on the porchuntil approximately 15h00. Although Ms Jacobs conceded that she might havemissed seeing the bakkie, she was adamant that she would have noticed arefrigerator being offloaded.[18] Mrs Antoinette Jacobs, who had been standing on the front porch with herdaughters that Sunday afternoon, had noticed that when the appellant left hishouse that afternoon, after talking to Sasha Leigh’s grandmother, he had failed togreet as he usually does. The last time Mrs Jacobs saw Sasha Leigh was whenthe latter was walking behind the appellant on the front porch of house no 45.She didn’t see a white bakkie offloading a refrigerator during the time she was onthe front porch.[19] The appellant, who at the time of the incident in question was 26 yearsold, testified that he had a drug problem and that he owed drug dealers a largesum of money and had been threatened by them. The threats were directed athis family. This part of the appellant’s evidence was directed at showing thatthere was a possibility that Sasha Leigh had been snatched by the drug dealers