The Erasmus family were a right-wing cause calibre in the small North West town of Vryburg after their son Christoff was stabbed in the neck with a pair of scissors by classmate Andrew Babeile.
But now, nearly 10 years later, there is no fanfare for Marieta, Christoffel and Christoff Erasmus, who are due to appear in the Vryburg magistrate's court on Tuesday on charges of theft relating to the alleged disappearance of R1,2-million from a local cattle auction house, Andre Kock & Seun.
The three were arrested late last year, and first appeared in court in November.
Prosecutors at the court said Marieta Erasmus had been out on bail, while her husband and son were released on warning during an earlier hearing.
Wilton Viljoen, the legal representative for the family, said the case had been postponed to Tuesday for plea bargaining.
This would be the Erasmuses' second appearance, said Viljoen, adding that he had been instructed not to disclose any information about his clients.
Babeile - who spent two years in prison, with a further three suspended, for stabbing Christoff Erasmus - said this week he intended to be at court on Tuesday, even though he realised "full well" that his presence could be seen as provocation by some whites in Vryburg.
"No, I want to see them standing there in the dock," he said, "just like I had to stand in the dock. It's like I want to prove a point to myself."
To this day, Babeile believes he was equally a victim of Erasmus, claiming the boy had slapped him in an incendiary atmosphere of racial conflict at the school.
He says he lifted his pair of scissors to strike at Erasmus after he had been slapped by him in front of many other pupils, just as the bell for the end of break sounded.
The slapping had happened before, says Babeile, who was so infuriated by this humiliation that he felt compelled to retaliate.
Such was the hatred that pervaded the town at the time, with white and black fury centred on its prestigious high school, that the incident between Babeile and Erasmus was not entirely unexpected.
Ten years ago, the army had to be called out after police were unable to control several bloody street battles that raged over the enrolment of black children.
After a small group of black pupils confronted the then headmaster, Theo Scholtz, over the suspensions of black pupils who could not pay fees as well as their lack of access to resources, up to 300 white parents - apparently mostly farmers - descended on the school in suburban De Kock Street and emerged from their bakkies wielding sjamboks and sticks.
Black pupils were assaulted in their classrooms and elsewhere on school property, leading to a mass protest by residents of Vryburg's township, Huhudi, where Babeile still lives.
Nelson Mandela, who was president at the time, later extended the hand of friendship to the Erasmus couple and also visited Babeile, who was behind bars in Kimberley.
Mandela intended these diplomatic endeavours to assist in healing the rift that had widened in Vryburg after the race war.
The aggressive resistance against racial integration had prompted then North West education MEC Zachariah Tolo to say that "tensions in Vryburg are so high that it is posing a serious threat to life and property".
Today, Vryburg views the Erasmus family in a rather different light.
Mayor Ruth Mompati, a struggle veteran who was born in the town and who taught there in the 1940s and early 1950s, believed they had moved away, but the allegation is that Marieta Erasmus was connected to auctioneers Andre Kock & Seun when the alleged theft happened.
The suspicion is that her son Christoff and husband Christoffel assisted her in the suspected crime.
The Erasmus family were not available for comment.
The auctioneers, who have operated in the town for nearly 50 years, would not comment on the record.