Australia still safer, says SA expat after murders
2011-05-01 23:07
Pretoria - The South African woman whose husband and parents were murdered in Adelaide on Friday, says Australia is still safer than her country of birth.
"This kind of crime doesn’t happen here every day," 38-year-old Rika Mombers, formerly of Amanzimtoti, told her family in South Africa.
Mombers’s husband Luc, 41, and her parents, 64-year-old Kobus Snyman and his wife Annatjie, 65, were shot dead in their house by a neighbour.
The Mombers family moved to Australia three years ago because of crime in South Africa and to give their children Alicia, 16, and Marcel, 14, "a better future".
Marcel is in serious condition after the neighbour shot him in the throat and shoulder. Alicia was at a friend’s house at the time.
Rika managed to flee the house with an 11-year-old boy, apparently a friend of Marcel’s, when Luc warned her after he was shot through the front door.
The neighbour then went from room to room firing at random, killing the Snymans in their bed.
The Snyman’s were due to return home to Pretoria on May 5 after a month-long visit.
Their son Johan, who lives in Pretoria, said on Sunday he was able to speak to his sister for the first time on Saturday.
He said he believes his father died “with peace in his heart”, because he dearly wanted to see his daughter and grandchildren again.
Ironic
But he said the incident is ironic, because the family left South Africa after both Luc and Rika were affected by crime. He said they didn’t want that for their children.
Luc's father Hubert, 70, said he hadn't seen the family since they left South Africa three years ago.
"Now I’ll never be able to say goodbye," he said.
The Momberses' neighbour, Donato Anthony Corba, also wounded two policemen - shooting one in the face - and held police at bay for eight hours at his mother's house next door.
The 39-year-old will appear in court on Monday on three charges of murder and three of attempted murder.
Local police spokesperson Inspector Denise Gray told the Australian Sunday Mail police are still investigating a motive.
