Johannesburg - “I never thought the last sight I would have of my dad would be him under a space blanket and that the last touch of him would be his blood dripping from a mop through my hands.”
These are the heartbreaking words of Juan Smit after he used a mop and bucket to clean up a pool of blood at his parents’ home on their Akasia smallholding, hours after his father was shot and killed by three intruders.
“My dad only fired four shots at the men who fired about 16 rounds at him, eight of which hit his body. Two of those were fired at such close range that they broke the tiles on which his body lay,” Smit said.
Speaking to the Pretoria News from his sister Deidre Delport’s house, while his mother Tillie Smit, 58, put on a brave face, the family recalled the morning of Christmas Eve, when Kobus Smit, 60, was accosted by three armed men, shot and killed.
“We awoke to a banging noise from one of the rooms in the house. My husband went out with his gun and I waited in the room. I just heard shots going off. I walked into the passage and saw him lying on the floor. My heart stopped for a minute,” Tillie said.
“I knelt down next to him and asked him what’s going on. What was he doing on the floor? He was breathing but wasn’t answering me.
“I was in such a state of shock I didn’t really understand what was going on. He was bleeding but I didn’t know from where, I was in a daze. I still can’t say what happened,” she said.
Minutes later, security services, police, paramedics and family members arrived on the smallholding in Heatherdale Street.
Kobus was declared dead by paramedics soon after they arrived.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Matthews Nkoadi confirmed the incident.
He said three men had gained entry to the Smits’ house. A TV and a kettle were left near the door.
“My father paid with his life, and for what? Nothing, because nothing was taken,” Juan said.
Nkoadi said it was believed a shoot-out ensued between the suspects and Smit. It could not be confirmed if any suspect had been injured.
“There was a bullet hole in my dad’s chin and chest. They shot him while he was lying on the ground, to make sure that if the other six shots hadn’t killed him, those two would.
“We know it was at close range because the tiles underneath him were cracked and had bullet holes in them,” Juan said.
As soon as forensics and crime scene investigators were done with the scene and Smit’s body had been removed, Juan grabbed a bucket of water and a mop and started cleaning up the pool of blood.
“I am the only son and I would never expect my mom to clean that. I did it with pride for my dad. I never pictured myself doing it, but it had to be done. The bloodied water that flowed through my hands as I dried the mop each time brought its own emotion. So many things were going through my mind. Anger, sadness, grief, worry about what’s going to happen next, it all played in my mind and still is,” Jaun said.
On Sunday, Tillie was still struggling to come to terms with her husband’s death. “Christmas will never be the same again. We are also saddened that he never got to learn about the pregnancy of our only grandchild with her first child. He was very fond of her and would have been very excited at the news.
Kobus will be buried on Friday.
No arrests have yet been made.
Pretoria News