Attorney of woman accused of killing Pretty Mahlangu says he advised her not to apologise immediately after the incident

JOHANNESBURG -The attorney of the woman accused of running over a crowd of girls and killing one of them said he advised his client not to reach out to apologise immediately after the incident.

Kineil Muthray said it was too soon, and he did not want to further aggrieve the family.

His client, 68-year-old Martha van der Walt, is facing charges of culpable homicide; she was released on R5,000 bail on Friday by the Germiston Magistrates Court.

The Germiston Magistrates Court heard how the State still needed to get a post-mortem report and download the video footage which captured the incident.

Pretty Mahlangu’s family expressed disappointment when they saw the woman walk free, saying she had no remorse as she still had not apologised.

READ: Attorney of woman accused of killing Pretty Mahlangu says they have different version of incident

Muthray said that earlier in July, Van der Walt wanted to reach out to the family, but he advised her against it.

"I advise that it's an open wound, it's really difficult and it's not going to feature very well if they are going to reach out to the family at this stage. I did request that the investigating officer facilitate this during the first matter that wasn’t enrolled. He said that he would do that, but he also said it would be difficult."

He added that the accused also wanted to help with financial support for the young girl’s family.