The sheer terror a helpless wife experienced when her unarmed husband was cold-bloodedly executed in front of her, and then having that executioner twice try and shoot her, opened up raw wounds in court last week.
The murderer of Mark Regal (50), Khulekane Kaizer Mthethwa (46), was sentenced to life imprisonment after his vicious attack on the farm Thelma in the Odendaalsrus district in November 2020.
After firing the fatal shot he had turned to murder Regal’s wife Angela, whom he shot at twice. For this barbaric act he received an additional ten years. His subsequent appeal was dismissed by the presiding judge on Wednesday 31 July in the Welkom Regional Court.
Angela describes the memory of that night as being indelibly carved into her mind, and that her testimony in court re-opened old wounds.
“It was horrific having to watch the CCTV footage of that traumatic night and relive the sheer terror and horror of seeing Mark shot in cold blood, and watching those men destroy my life and those of our children.
She says she lives with the burden of having shot dead one of the perpetrators.
“I feel so guilty I could not save Mark, and I feel guilty that I took someone’s life. I live with this daily and reliving that awful day in court has just made my nightmares so real again.”
Angela says that after Mthethwa shot and killed Mark, he fired the first shot at her and missed.
“In self-defence I shot the other intruder who had my upper body in a tight embrace. The murderer then shot the second shot at me at close range and missed again. He had the gun at my head and my eardrum was perforated.”
In her victim impact statement, Angela told the court that on Wednesday, 11 November 2020, the worst day of her entire life, she never got to say goodbye to Mark.
“This horrendous act has devastated a family and destroyed my life and that of our children Blake (24) and Kiara-Lee (21). Every day that I wake up, I experience the reminder that my husband is gone. I awaken and for a few brief moments, I have forgotten, then the realisation will come and my heart will break anew. I spend so many mornings crumpled by the sadness of coming face to face with his death almost as if it were the first time,” she told the court.
She said that she has been robbed of a happily ever after forever with Mark.
“My children have been robbed of ever having their father seeing them graduate, seeing his grandchildren or walking Kiara-Lee down the aisle.
Angela says her children have received many hours of counselling for their incredible loss.
“Blake could not even finish his studying due to the effect it had on him. Kiara-Lee was in Gr. 11 and had to write her final exams with this loss of her father. This was not how we planned to live our lives,” Angela told the court.
“The endless stream of tears have not stopped, nor will they any time soon.
“The nights are the hardest. Sleep eludes me as I have recurring nightmares of the event. I see Mark’s lifeless bloodied body, I am too scared to be alone at home, especially at night. I suffer from PTSD, anxiety and depression. Every day I am still confronted by triggers due to this trauma.”
Angela testified that she is thankful to God for protecting her with his love and saving her that horrendous night.
“I thank God for saving me to still be here for my children. The emotional void left by Mark’s absence is indescribable. Mark could light up a room just with his presence, his infectious smile and laugh. He always saw the bright side of any situation. In a flash of a second he was taken from us; the tremendous void will never be filled and the heartbreak will never go away.
“There are no celebrations of birthdays, Christmas or anniversaries, just memories of what once was”, says Angela.
The endless stream of tears have not stopped, nor will they any time soon. – Angela Regal
