Cape Town - The Daily Voice can reveal that Juanita Pieters has finally signed the transfer documents for the house promised to her by President Jacob Zuma months ago.
The vacant home is located in Delft, and is just waiting for the family to move in.
However, the mother of little Courtney Pieters, three, who was brutally raped and murdered in May this year, is very sick in hospital, and unable to move in yet, her relatives confirmed.
Zuma promised a grieving Juanita the new house, donated by his foundation, a week after Courtney’s body was found buried in a shallow grave on a field in Epping Industria.
Zuma also gave the family R10 000 cash when he visited their Elsies River home.
The new beige and yellow RDP-style house, which was completed early last month, has two bedrooms.
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Juanita, 43, is still being treated at the Brooklyn Chest Hospital, for tuberculosis which has spread to her brain.
According to her cousin, Juanita has been tight-lipped about the new home and its location, because of threats from people believing her to be somehow involved in her daughter’s death.
Cousin Lishel Simmers says as far as she knows, the family will move in as soon as Juanita is well enough.
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“No date has been set, but everything has been signed off and the family will be able to start over fresh,” Lishel tells Daily Voice.
“Juanita was fetched from Brooklyn Chest [hospital] last week to go sign the papers in town [Department of Human Settlements]. They’ve been shown their new home and when Juanita is better, they will move.”
Juanita Pieters at her Elsies River home. File picture: David Ritchie/ANA
Courtney went missing from her home in Pluto Street, Salberau Estate, on 4 May and was found nine days later.
The family’s boarder, Mortimer Saunders, 40, has been arrested for her rape and murder.
Saunders is the childhood friend of Courtney’s father, and Juanita’s partner, Aaron Fourie.
It is alleged that the child went into his room to watch TV, but he was apparently tired and poisoned her before allegedly raping her and then burying her tiny body.
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Pre-trial for the murder kicks off in the Western Cape High Court on 24 November and the trial is set to start in January 2018.
Lishel says the new house in Delft will be a “new start” for Juanita, Aaron and their three remaining children, Andrea, 19, Mikhayla, 13 and Adrian, seven.
Previously there was a hold-up where documentation regarding Juanita’s divorce from her husband in Tulbagh had to be finalised.
This has been done, Lishel confirmed.