A Delft girl whose father was killed when he shielded her from gang gunfire has died in hospital.
On Wednesday night, hours after Genesis was shot in the head by alleged gangsters, Candice Lottering, 37, consented to the most difficult choice any parent could ever make.
The doctors switched off the 12-year-old’s life support and the mom has decided to donate her daughter’s organs.
Now Candice has not only lost her husband, but also her child to gang violence.
The mother-of-two, who suffers from high blood pressure, was admitted to Tygerberg Hospital when her daughter and her husband Cavin were shot on Umvoti Street in Leiden.
Genesis, a Grade 7 learner at JS Kloppers Primary School, and Cavin were on their way to the shop when two ganagsters shot them and three others on Tuesday night.
A couple, Carlo Gesie, 30, and Michelle Valentine, 22, who were standing by the spaza shop, were also killed and their friend, Lizette Hoorn, 33, a mother-of-seven, was shot in the buttocks.
A heartbroken Candice says: “My family came to get me from the hospital but never told me what exactly happened.
“When we got to the scene, my baby was already in hospital and my husband’s body was still there.
“But I didn’t know that the body was there, I was still very confused and our Bishop came and told me that my husband had been killed.”
The mother of two says she is left with a very deep wound.
“My son is only two years old and he doesn’t understand what has happened,” she says as she cries. He asked me yesterday where dada and tietie are and I couldn’t respond.”
Genesis followed her father as he went to buy potatoes that evening.
Her aunt Vernika Lottering, 29, says she wanted Cavin to buy her sweets.
“It was around 7pm and we were cooking supper and he went to get the potatoes.
“And then shortly after they went to the shop, we heard gunshots and when the shooting stopped, we heard people screaming.
“Someone came to tell us that they had shot the father and the daughter. I got to the scene and when I tried to speak to Cavin, he took his last breath, then I told Genesis she is going to be okay, she must hang in there.”
When the ambulance arrived Genesis, was barely conscious and slipped into a coma before she arrived at hospital.
On Wednesday, doctors told her family there was nothing they could do but turn the life support machine off.
The Anti-Gang Unit is investigating and no arrests have been made yet.
Daily Voice