Kotzé explains brutal attack to police
2012-01-13 12:24
Marietie Louw-Carstens, Beeld
Modimolle - Johan Kotzé told police during questioning over the severe assault on his estranged wife that he just wanted to "hurt her a little bit", it emerged on Friday.
A source close to the investigation, who wanted to remain anonymous, said Kotzé had told the police what he apparently did to the woman.
"It is unreal what he did. It scares one," the source told Beeld.
Kotzé apparently pointed out various things to the police on Thursday.
Last Tuesday Kotzé allegedly forced three men hired as gardeners to rape the woman in his Church Street home. He allegedly also assaulted her. Pieces of her breasts were apparently cut off and sharp objects were used to pierce her silicone breast implants.
Kotzé allegedly also shot and killed his stepson, Conrad Bonnette, 19, after phoning him and asking him to come to the house to "discuss something".
Court
Kotzé lived in his Toyota Fortuner for eight days in a wooded area barely two kilometres outside Modimolle while police were searching for him all over the country. He lost some of his teeth when he crashed into a thorn tree near his hide-out on Tuesday night.
He was transferred from the Modimolle police cells to the Bela-Bela police cells on Wednesday night.
Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said Kotzé was moved for security reasons.
He appeared along with one of his suspected accomplices in the Modimolle Magistrate's Court on Friday. The case was postponed to February 10.
The 42-year-old suspected accomplice was arrested in Hammanskraal outside Pretoria on Wednesday morning. A second suspect was arrested on Friday morning.
Dirk van der Merwe, the man who called police to arrest Kotzé, said that when the fugitive arrived at his home at about 11:45 on Wednesday, he looked weary and dishevelled. "He asked me whether he could shower, but I said I would go and make some coffee, and then phoned the police.
"Many things go through your mind. I didn't know whether he might shoot me," said Van der Merwe, a dental technician.
Two detectives arrested Kotzé "quietly", Van der Merwe said.
Kotzé's hair was unkempt, and he had many cuts and scratches on his legs. He was wearing a khaki shirt and shorts and slip-slops and his feet were covered in dirt.
His estranged wife is still in a place of safety. "She is relieved and very, very glad that he has been caught. She is calmer now, but still crying a lot," said a close female friend
Daughter 'broken'
Meanwhile, Beeld reports that Kotzé's 16-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, who attends school in Bloemfontein, is said to have defended her father.
"He's still my hero, no matter what he has done," the girl told a family friend shortly after her father was arrested on Wednesday.
"She is broken and will have to receive counselling after everything that's happened. He's still her father," said the family friend, a woman who has asked not to be named.
The girl apparently visited her father regularly in Modimolle. A photo on her Facebook profile shows Kotzé giving her a kiss on the cheek.
