Wit Wolf: Bus killer 'a POW'

2003-05-02 18:40

Pretoria - Wit Wolf Barend Strydom, who killed eight blacks in the late 80s, says every day bus killer De Wet Kritzinger and other "Boer prisoners of war" spend in jail, is a day too long.

Kritzinger received a triple life sentence in the Pretoria High Court on Friday for killing three people on a Mamelodi-bound bus in January 2000. Another four passengers were wounded.

A banner calling for amnesty for "Boer warriors" was carried in front of relatives and friends of Kritzinger's as they left the court.

"Each day in jail for De Wet and every other Boer prisoners of war is a day too long," Strydom told reporters.

"The sentence handed down is a hard, cruel and long sentence."

Strydom was given the death sentence, but was freed after four years in jail in terms of an agreement reached with the pre-1994 negotiations.

Bus victims' relatives satisfied

But various relatives of the three deceased expressed their satisfaction with Judge Dion Basson's ruling.

"I'm happy," said Constance Nyembe. Her husband Mduduzi was the driver of the bus and Kritzinger's first victim on his shooting spree.

"It's my child who was killed. I'm happy," echoed Edith Mathebula, whose daughter Gogo also died.

Gogo's brother Stanley said: "He got what he deserved."

'We'll stand by him

Kritzinger's mother Ryna would not speak to reporters, but his sisters Debbie Visser and Marie Smit said they were very disappointed.

"We'll stand by him," said Visser. "We believe in him. He's a good person."

She believed the sentence was harsh, but Smit said they had expected it.

A priest in a white coat, Isaac Malaza, prayed out loud outside the exit of the court building, calling for the realisation that black people were human beings and that Kritzinger would be punished for what he had done.

Another man held a big card-board placard with the words: "My God is not a killer or a racist."

Kritzinger testified he had committed the killings because of a promise he had made to God.

- SAPA