Klerksdorp, 19 January, 2020 / 10:11 pm (ACI Africa).
The young man suspected to have murdered a missionary priest who was engaged in parish ministry in South Africa’s diocese of Klerksdorp last week was well known to the late cleric, has already been arraigned in court over the killing and is set to be presented to the court again “to apply for bail,” ACI Africa has been told.
The 23-year-old man suspected to have murdered Fr. Joseph Hollander on Sunday, January 12 “has been apprehended. He made a brief appearance where he has requested legal assistance,” the Bishop of Klerksdorp diocese, Victor Phalana told ACI Africa Saturday, January 18.
The Bishop described the suspect as “a young man well known to (the late) Fr. (Hollander) and no one suspected him.”
The South African Prelate described the killing of Fr. Hollander, a native of Belgium, a case of break-in “robbery” after the late priest had returned to his house from Sunday Mass because the murderer took away the missionary’s “clothes, an old computer, a cellphone, and tools from his workshop just to sell and buy drugs or alcohol.”
The body of the late cleric was tied up in his house in the parish of Tsogong in Bodibe village within South Africa’s diocese of Klerksdorp, some 200 kilometers west of Johannesburg.