A mother, gang-raped allegedly on the instruction of her enraged estranged husband, assaulted by him, and left bereft after he allegedly shot dead her son, has gone into hiding.
Sources said she was discharged from hospital on Monday at her own request. She is now being cared for at a secret location where she is under constant police guard.
The placing of the woman and her teenage daughter in secret places of safety comes as police on Monday said they were closing in on the suspect and were confident of making an arrest soon.
On Monday, her son’s devastated friend, who had been with him on the day he died, said the family had been everything to the 20-year-old, a University of Pretoria computer sciences student.
“He loved his mother so much and was very protective of her and the rest of his family, said Marinus Cloete.
Police are remaining tight-lipped to protect the family and not to jeopardise their investigation, but officers close to the case say it is a matter of days before it comes to an end.
The suspect, named by family as Johannes Christiaan Kotze, 51, has been on the run since the attack last Monday. He apparently lured the woman to his rented home in Modimolle to discuss their divorce.
He is then alleged to have used his estranged wife’s cellphone to also trick her son into coming to the house on the pretence of getting him to help her to remove some of her possessions from the house.
Once at the house the fugitive allegedly overpowered the son, forcing his mother to listen as he apparently made him beg for his life, before executing him with a single gunshot to the back of the head.
“Either it is going to be messy or not, but either way we are prepared for any eventuality. It is up to the suspect how he chooses to end it. He knows his options and they are not many,” an officer, who cannot be named, told the Pretoria News.
Cloete, who had accompanied his friend to the house in Modimolle, still cannot believe that his friend is gone. “None of us can believe it, it doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Cloete said: “The last time I saw him was when I left him at (the) house.” His stepdad – who he said gave him a “weird look” – told me “to go buy some cooldrinks”.
But now Cloete wishes he had not left his friend alone. “He (the friend) didn’t want to go to the house. He had a bad feeling, but was worried about his mother. That’s why he went.
“He was always trying to help people, from his family to complete strangers… a really good person who did not deserve this,” he said.
“He was the kind of person, anyone would want as a friend. Good, kind, peaceful and caring, always willing to talk if you had a problem and always joking around if you needed to laugh,” he said.
A close friend of the woman said although she was not healed she was stable enough to be moved.
“We cannot elaborate on her condition or whereabouts.
“She is stable and is alright although it is going to take a lot of time and patience to get through all of this,” he said.
Limpopo police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed an arrest was imminent and said officers were closing down the suspect’s avenues to ensure that he had no room to manoeuvre.
“We will make sure he can’t escape. If he wants a showdown we will give him one. We will ensure that he is brought to book one way or another,” he said.
The woman and her son were attacked last Monday after they were allegedly lured separately to Kotze’s rented Modimolle home.
At the house, Kotze allegedly had casual workers, whom he had apparently hired for the day to remove three palm trees from his home, overpower his estranged wife, tie her to a bed and gang-rape her before he allegedly mutilated her using nails, pliers, a screwdriver and a grinder. - Pretoria News