By Angelique Serrao and Kanina Foss
How do you tell the world about your personal heartache and grief? How do you put into words what it is like to lose a child?
This is the dilemma Jacques Pretorius's family faced this week after the death of their 16-year-old son. The Grade 9 pupil had his jugular slashed on Monday when 18-year-old Morne Harmse donned a mask from the band Slipknot and allegedly went on a rampage, wielding a ninja sword, at the Nic Diederichs Technical High.
Harmse allegedly killed Pretorius and then went on to injure fellow pupil Stephan Bouwer and two groundsmen Joseph Kodeseng and Samuel Malamela.
Jacques's father Gerard has been hounded by journalists since the slaying to give an interview on how the family was feeling about their son's death. He does not know how to deal with all the media attention.
"I can only speak after the funeral," he said.
"Today is the only day we have been able to rest after all of this, to sit at home and just take it all in," he said on Wednesday afternoon.
He looked exhausted, like he could not take any more of the grief he was suddenly faced with.
"Every time a child dies the media wants the family to say that he was wonderful and good and did everything right. What must I say?
"He was all of those things. He was a child who would not hurt a fly, he was loveable, he was my right hand," Gerard said, beginning to cry. "He was everything good and it feels like my heart is being torn out of my body. I feel so very sore and the pain is so strong and it is a pain that will never go away."
Jacques's funeral will be held at 11am on Friday at the Hervormde Kerk in Krugersdorp.