Wedding on hold for dad's funeral

2012-01-24 10:49

Gerhard Pretorius, Beeld

Pretoria - A couple's wedding plans have been put on hold after the bride-to-be's father was shot dead and her mother assaulted during a robbery on a smallholding near Brits over the weekend.

Yolandi van der Linden, 27, and her fiancé, Gerhard Coetzee, 26, feared for their lives and hid while two robbers assaulted Frans, 57, and Elizabeth van der Linden, 52, at about 03:00 on Sunday morning.

The couple planned to marry next Saturday and her parents had travelled from Lichtenburg to Brits for last-minute wedding arrangements.

The four spent the night on a smallholding belonging to Coetzee’s mother, Jackoline Botha, 61, in Rashoop, about 13km outside Brits. Botha was not home at the time of the robbery.

The emotional couple said on Monday that they now had to organise a funeral instead of a wedding.

Helpless

Coetzee saw how the robbers assaulted his prospective father-in-law in the passageway with something that looked like truncheon before pushing him into a room.

Coetzee pulled shut their bedroom door and went to hide under the bed while his fiancée hid in the wardrobe.

“We heard how they yelled at my parents: ‘Where is the money? Where is the money?’ and then we heard two shots.

“After the fighting it became very quiet and I wondered if both were dead or what they were now doing to my mother,” said Yolandi.

After the robbers fled, Van der Linden stumbled into his daughter’s room to see if they were injured.

“He lay down on our bed, bleeding, struggling to breathe. We felt so helpless. I couldn’t do anything to help him,” said a tearful Coetzee on Monday while comforting his fiancée.

Police, a security company and an ambulance were on the scene within minutes after a neighbour pressed a panic button.

Van der Linden died in the ambulance.

His wife was hit on the legs with the truncheon.

The robbers fled with a wallet, cellphone and two watches.

Nightmare

Yolandi said it felt like she would wake up any moment to find her father still there to take her away from the nightmare.

“Why did they have to hurt my parents? Couldn’t they just have taken what they wanted and gone away?”

The couple said Van der Linden was looking forward to having a new baby in the family.

“My dad was a loving man who was happiest when his wife and children were happy.

“My dad is my hero and I will miss him terribly,” Yolandi said.
 

Comments

• Theresa - 2012-01-24 10:59

  When are these senseless murders going to end? He is one of eight people murdered since the weekend!

  Fredster - 2012-01-24 12:28

  What are you doing about this Mr President?

  procold2 - 2012-01-24 14:11

  i dont think it can end, SA is criminal state where the criminal has more human rights than the victims, we need swift law and the death sentence for violent crime and proper sentences for lesser petty crime,fight fire with fire sorry for your loss yolande and family

  Gideon - 2012-01-24 15:14

  @Procol: we could start by adopting the "Castle Doctrine". We can even rename it to the "Kraal Doctrine" to make it more proudly SA, but the principles remain the same: more rights for citizens, less rights for criminals. Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine

• Ndivhuho - 2012-01-24 11:08

  Im sorry for your loss!!

• Comrade - 2012-01-24 11:17

  South African KILLING FIELDS!!! When will this end. Cry our belovered Country!!!!!

• Whitty - 2012-01-24 11:21

  The killings will end the day we all see each other as human,rather than as sub-humans.

  Gideon - 2012-01-24 11:34

  Sorry dude, but I see people who perpetrate this sort of thing as sub-human. You are willing to torture and murder for a wallet and a cellphone, then you are sub-human: untermensch. They deserve the gallows at the very least, hot lead preferably because it's cheaper.

  Whitty - 2012-01-24 12:00

  If you see them that way ,then they will kill for whatever reason.And you are not far from being a victim yourself I feel you are attracting their negative energy.kortze and the likes.

  Gideon - 2012-01-24 12:10

  They are going to kill for whatever reason anyway, that's how the South African criminal works. If they come for me, I'll be ready. That's not a boast, just a statement of fact. Hope you're ready too.

• Sharon - 2012-01-24 11:21

  RIP Uncle ..............shoot the fluckers when u catch them ...don`t let them go to jail

• Gideon - 2012-01-24 11:23

  My sincere condolences to them and the family. These cowardly bastards had better remember: You live by the sword, you die by the sword. Crime cannot be allowed to pay!

• jessiejaneg - 2012-01-24 11:26

  This is awful! my thoughts go out to the family :(

• Shirley - 2012-01-24 11:29

  This is unacceptable,horrific and heartbreaking! All because we live in a country where the powers that be are in denial about crime,continue to make the laws work in favour of the criminal andsit back with folded arms while families are being torn apart daily!!!!Mr President-stop the lavish parties,3 planes to go overseas,upgrades on your house and START CARING FOR THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!!!

• Sechaba - 2012-01-24 11:35

  i wish while on the run, they get crushed by a train or out of nowhere a meteorite fall on them, cos if they get caught, they'l be given a simple 5 years imprisonment and then qualify for parole within no time

• Larry - 2012-01-24 11:41

  What a sad story.

• Coral - 2012-01-24 11:53

  Rudie you are a real dumb ass...your comment is VERY uncalled for. Wait till the same thing happens to you Mate - and if it ever does (god forbid) i'd like to see how you'd handle that type of comment after such a traumatic experience!

• paullombard17 - 2012-01-24 11:59

  frikkin savages!!!!

• Rudie - 2012-01-24 12:20

  My apologies.

• comrade.zondi - 2012-01-24 12:23

  Eish Once again it is crime by darkie. No wonder so many people hate us and cheer when the police kill us. Comrade Zondi

• kellyc04 - 2012-01-24 12:23

  I'm so sorry for their terrible loss

• Manny - 2012-01-24 12:30

  What has this got to do with the price of eggs? Nothing changes, we just go on our normal ways and then another incident is reported. Who are these people anyway? Never heard of them in my life before. I wish News 24 will report issues of relevance to our lives, not gloom and doom issues all the time. Sure this is sad, but there is so much of the same thing happening and nothing constructive is being done about it. Find solutions rather than sensationalist stories.

  Tracy - 2012-01-24 14:00

  Easy to say until it happens to you and your whole world falls apart. Crime may not be touching you directly, but trust me it has a direct impact on you eg cost of insurance etc. Hope you never have to feel the pain of having a family member murdered!

• Sharon - 2012-01-24 12:31

  WHY ARE U DELETING MY POSTS??????????????????????????????????????/

• nthathanem - 2012-01-24 12:43

  Im very sorry that some human beings have to go through this terrible experience. I just dont know what is our country turning into. NTHA

• Jeanne - 2012-01-24 12:50

  Such an unnecessary loss of life.

• siyat.bonanza - 2012-01-24 12:50

  You know what guys, we spend time discussing politics and racial issues (not saying they aren't NB) but there are real issues that need all people black and white to stand together. The government is not protecting us from crime. I don't care what their statistics say. This man was a tax payer and did not deserve to die like that. If you shoot these 'things', the police will be on your case as if you invited them. I am so sick and tired of this society.

• Sylvia - 2012-01-24 12:55

  Absolutely shocking! These senseless murders just carry on and families are plunged into sadness and bereavement because our government does nothing to deter the criminals. Sincere condolences to the family.

• annie.kalahari - 2012-01-24 13:26

  Thus far this month the farmitracker.com criminology-website logged nine farm-murders and more than a dozen attacks on rural Afrikaner families. Especially in the Alkmaar region around Nelspruit, Afrikaners are under siege from gangs of black ex-soldiers and ex-cops who are often armed with SA-government issue weapons and carry out these brutal attacks against Afrikaner families with only one purpose: to kill the head of the family. The minor trinkets which are stolen give the SAPS the excuse to describe these genocidal attacks against defenceless families as 'ordinary crime' and 'armed robberies' but they are nothing of the kind: these are organised militia-gangs which are stationed across the border in Mozambique and carry out armed insurgencies against defenceless South African citizens. It's high time that the ANC-regime including Jacob Zuma himself, stopped inciting their own followers to kill the Boers. It's also high time that the news media in South Africa stopped their slavish adherence to quoting government propaganda about this murderous, genocide campaign against a very small, very visible minority in South Africa. I blame the South African news media for their aiding and abetting this murder-campaign by their refusal to publish the truth about this murders which are very often accompanied by hours of torture and mutilation of body parts. These are not 'ordinary crimes', these are crimes carried out by people with a blind hatred of their victims.

• Gloria - 2012-01-24 14:12

  The first thing that went throught my mind was why did the future son in law not try and help? Shame, the father still went back to the bedroom to check if the 2 of them was ok after all what happened. I understand that it must be beyond terrifying, but if it was my father I would not have second thoughts even if they had a gun. On the other hand I suppose when you go into shock things happen that you cannot control. Shows you, always have weapons (knifes, pepper spray, etc. or a gun if you have one) hidden all over the house (in a safe place of course)to protect yourself, we DO live in SA! Always expect the unexpected....

• Melissa - 2012-01-24 15:20

  Oh.. that's so terrible and heart wrenching!!!! So sorry to the family, expecially the bride, as i know how devestated she must be! A father walking his daughter down the isle is one of the most important factors of a wedding, and the opening dance... So so sorry for her!

• natasha.fukuchi - 2012-01-24 15:48

  So sorry for your loss Yolandi... Xxx

• Dinky - 2012-01-25 16:30

  http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/ Connecticut USA student-radio-station reports on Genocide targetting Afrikaners in South Africa: plans protest meetings: The commentator said: "They are slaughtering, raping, mutilating and killing the Boer farmers in South Africa because they are whites. The black leaders of South Africa don't want them there, they want them dead. The youth leader of the ruling ANC Julius Malema is openly singing for their genocide with the hatespeech song. Why do people say there is 'claimed' to be a genocide, but these things are happening right now. Why isn't anybody saying anything about this? There was widespread publicity about the blacks attacking people about immigration/xenophobia issues. But why are they covering up the genocide against the Boers? "

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