I'm simply gatvol - Louw
2009-12-01 23:24
Pretoria - Chris Louw, veteran journalist and columnist, famous for writing the "Boetman" letter, shot himself under the chin with an AK-47.
He'd been dead for hours when his friend and fellow journalist Foeta Krige discovered his rain-soaked body in an old aviary near a compost heap on Louw's smallholding at De Wildt, near Hartbeespoort.
The news of the fiery Louw's suicide was met with countrywide shock and disbelief on Tuesday.
"That was the last thing I would've expected of him," said a sad Krige on Tuesday at the scene, as Louw's body was being removed.
One provocative mystery is where Louw got hold of the AK-47. Beeld has heard that in a last letter to his family, Louw wrote that he'd found an AK-47 in a bag on his smallholding a while back. He hadn't told anyone about it.
Recently Louw wrote regularly in Beeld and Rapport about the serious crime problem in the area where he lives.
Made arrangements for wife
Krige, executive director of Monitor/Spektrum, found a letter addressed to Louw's wife, Johanita, at the scene.
"In the letter he'd made certain arrangements about what she should do and who she should contact," said Krige.
In the same letter, Louw apparently wrote about a recent family argument that had upset him a lot.
In 2000, he unleashed a countrywide debate with his "Boetman" letter, in which he expressed the frustrations of middle-aged white men, who felt the old National Party's "patriarchs" had betrayed them by sending them to the border to fight in an unwinnable war.
Louw, who was once seen as "left", was later disillusioned to a great extent about the course the country was taking under the ANC government.
'No sense in muddling on'
He went missing on Monday, about 17 hours before his body was found. Members of the LemLouw security company and the community organisation De Wildt Helpmekaar started looking for him on Monday afternoon, after threatening that he wanted to take his own life.
On Monday at 14:07, in an e-mail sent to Tim du Plessis, editor of Beeld, he wrote: "I'm simply 'gatvol'. There's no sense in muddling on; dead sooner, rather than later."
Du Plessis called and SMSed him in vain.
When Du Plessis phoned Louw's wife at about 16:00, she said she'd just heard a shot. Moments later Jan Lemmer and members of LemLouw and the neighbourhood watch arrived at the smallholding and started searching the area of about 8.5ha.
The search party later expanded their search to neighbouring farms and also went to the local pub to investigate.
Was in high spirits
Once it was pitch dark, the search party was called off and Louw's wife called the police. Counsellors from the Brits police station went to the house.
At 22:00, Krige and his 19-year-old daughter Jamaine arrived at the farm to support Louw's wife. Early on Tuesday Krige started looking for Louw again.
"I found Chris at 07:40," said Krige on Tuesday. He paused for a moment, as he struggled to hold back the tears. "He shot himself. He had a head wound."
He said Louw's wife and the couple's adult children, Yolande and Eugene, and the rest of their family are extremely upset about what happened.
According to Krige, last Friday was the last time he spoke to Louw, and suicide was "the last thing" he would've expected.
"Chris was in high spirits on Friday when he told me Tafelberg publishers had approached him to write a book. We were going to get together to talk."
After Louw was loaded into the police vehicle, Krige came closer and looked at his friend. He held onto the vehicle for a few moments, and then he let go as he cried softly.
Isaac Tsotetsi, police spokesperson, said the police are doing a post-mortem. He confirmed that an AK-47 was found near Louw's body, but couldn't say if it belonged to Louw.