'They're going to plant me'

2008-02-04 22:59

Magdel Fourie

Johannesburg - Just days before he died in a hail of bullets in the Morduant Street, Jeppestown, bloodbath, Sergeant Gert Schoeman told his parents he had a feeling his death was near.

His father, Stanley Schoeman, said Gert told them: "I'm next, they're going to plant me," he said when he visited his parents at Witpoortjie on the Thursday night before his death.

On Monday, just more than 18 months since the wild gunfight in which four police and eight robbers died on Sunday, June 25 2006, it was still "bitterly difficult" for his parents, Stanley and Nelie, to come to terms with the fact that he was gone forever.

It was the first time the devastated couple had attended the Jeppestown trial in Johannesburg High Court, and the first time that they had seen the 13 accused.

Stanley, his eyes red from tears, sobbed again when he told Beeld newspaper that he would never forget his son's premonition, which followed the death of several of his colleagues.

"Old wounds are being picked open again. His death was so unnecessary.

"He was much too young to die. And, all of it for just R35 000," he said, shaking his head.

"The police should never have stormed that house. They should have waited."

With hunched shoulders and holding her husband's hand, Nelie spoke through her tears of "how much I miss Gert, and long for him".

Supporting his best friend

"The longing is the worst. And it will still be so hard, long after the trial has ended. It's just so very difficult to be strong for this (trial)," she said.

The couple, who have been married for 35 years, attended Monday's proceedings to support Constable Christelle Harmse, one of Gert's closest colleagues, as she testified.

Harmse was at the Jeppestown house on the day their son died.

Nelie said: "She was the mate who was always there for him. They understood each other so well. She's like a daughter to me."

However, the couple have agreed not to attend the rest of the trial.

"It hurts so much," said Stanley softly, gazing into the distance.

"And, it will be that way until the day I'm no longer here," added Nelie.

- Beeld