“To think I gave birth to a whole human body, only to get it back in pieces.”
These are the words of the hartseer mother of, the 13-year-old boy who was brutally murdered by a Klawer farmer in February 2022.
Tears flowed at the Vredendal Circuit Court on Wednesday as a letter written by mom Triesa van Wyk, describing her trauma, was read into the record.
A day after the court convicted Daniel Smit for the kidnapping and premeditated murder of Jerobejin, Triesa shared her experience with Judge Hayley Slingers as she recalled the day her child died.
Smit, who was dubbed the Klawer Killer, went on trial last week and provided a graphic plea explanation of how he broke the child’s neck and placed him in a freezer, before dismembering the body and burning some parts of it.
Smit claimed he caught Jerobejin stealing fruit on his farm and became angry when the boy allegedly took him for a gat.
Smit ran him over with his bakkie and then took the child to his house, according to witnesses. Two days, later cops found human remains in the drains at Smit’s home.
Smit appeared in the Klawer Magistrates Court, where he abandoned his bail application, claiming he was a Satanist. Later he claimed the killing was linked to the occult.
In her letter, Triesa said she was her family’s breadwinner and on that day she returned home and was told that her son was missing.
After a sleepless night, she was informed that he had been murdered and her “heart broke into 100 pieces”.
She wrote: “Suddenly, life didn’t make sense and not even my daughter could console me.”
She also addressed Smit, saying she was at his house: “I asked you where my child was.
“I can’t think how you in your capacity as a parent of a child could find it in your heart to murder another person’s child so brutally.”
The mom then described her visit to the mortuary and the horror of finding her son’s remains in plastic bags.
The court heard: “On the day we were taken to the mortuary my expectation was to at least find a body, only to find a small plastic bag with body parts.”
The mom begged Smit to tell her what her son’s last words were: “I still have sleepless nights.
“When I close my eyes I hear my child calling for me. I see how my child is cut up in[to] pieces. To think I gave birth to a whole human body only to get it back in pieces.”
She concluded by asking the court to remove Smit from society, saying she will never forgive him.
Smit will be sentenced on Monday.
monique.duval@inl.co.za