Hermanus - A man who allegedly attacked his mother appeared in the Hermanus Magistrate's Court on Wednesday, a court official said.
Nicholas van der Pluym's, 20, case was postponed to October 20 as the court was waiting for medical reports, the court control prosecutor said.
On September 14, Afrikaans weekly Rapport reported that the man, aged 19 at the time, attacked his mother Anthea van der Pluym in her home in Voëlklip, Hermanus in July.
Anthea van der Pluym, 46, was hit over the head 14 times with a hammer, choked with an electric chord, doused in petrol and set alight. Her mother Dot Potgieter, 74, was also hit over the head with a hammer.
The son, being detained in Caledon, is facing two charges of attempted murder.
According to the report, he returned to South Africa from England a year ago and moved in with Anthea van der Pluym and Potgieter. He left South Africa with his father when he was 15. While in England he got involved in drugs.
Anthea van der Pluym said she only heard the good things when he called her from England and knew nothing about the drugs. A year ago, things started going bad, she told the paper.
When the drugs started to take their toll, she said she brought him home.
Looking back, she said, she should have seen the attack coming but no mother would believe their own child would hurt them.
Sapa