Johannesburg - The father of an "obsessed" man who allegedly killed his girlfriend in front of a guard at her security complex, has described his son as a murderer.
“I feel like I have lost everything,” said Gerhard Jansen van Vuuren, 58, from Koster in the North West province, on Wednesday.
His daughter committed suicide at the age of 19 and his grandson committed suicide a week ago.
His son Gerhard jnr, 30, allegedly killed Andrea Venter, 25, a former Rustenburg auditor, with a pocket knife.
Murderer
Gerhard jnr apparently attacked Venter in her home in the Sibaya Sands complex in Fourways, Johannesburg on Monday morning, hitting her in the face with a knuckle duster and then stabbing her with a pocket knife in front of a security guard.
“He is a murderer in my eyes. He committed a murder. I still love him. He’s my child.”
Venter was like a daughter to him, he said.
Now his son is fighting for his life after he tried to cut his own throat with the same knife used to kill Venter.
He is still unconscious and under police guard in the high care unit of the Life Fourways Hospital, northwest of Johannesburg.
He has a deep knife wound over half of his throat.
Jansen van Vuuren snr admitted that his son and Venter had a stormy relationship.
Obsession
"I begged both of them and pleaded with them to leave each other alone. I do think he had an obsession with her.
“She kept on telling me, over and over, that they still loved each other.”
He described his son as stubborn and a perfectionist.
The couple met about eight years ago at a friend’s wedding and had been inseparable since then.
"He even paid for Andrea’s flight ticket when he went to London for almost five years to work for a top company. They lived together there,” said Jansen van Vuuren snr.
"She kept calling him, every day, even after they had both been in court about the interdict against him, which she at first wanted to withdraw but then did not.
"They were recently at two family events with me. Andrea accompanied Gerhard to my brother’s birthday in Rustenburg on April 9 and even celebrated Gerhard’s 30th birthday on April 12 at his townhouse.
Pain
He said there was no truth in allegations that Venter had left Rustenburg and had gone to hide from his son in Johannesburg. He said his son had worked as a computer programmer for more than four years in Gauteng. He lived in Roodepoort on the West Rand.
"I wish I knew what could have driven him to something like this."
His son apparently apologised to Venter’s parents, Dries and Annatjie Venter, after an incident in which he threatened to kill them.
"I feel the pain of Andrea’s parents, because I know what it is like to lose a child. It is there forever.”
Jansen van Vuuren snr’s daughter, Yvonne Jansen van Vuuren, committed suicide at the age of 19 in 1994. Her son, Gavin Hennings, 16, committed suicide just over a week ago on his grandfather’s smallholding in Koster.
