Daniel Smit has been sentenced in the Western Cape High Court sitting in Vredendal. Photo: Ayanda Ndamane / Independent Newspapers
Convicted murderer Daniel Smit has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Western Cape High Court sitting in Vredendal for the premeditated murder of 13-year-old Jerobejin van Wyk from Klawer on Monday.
Smit, 58, was convicted on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, premeditated murder, violating a corpse, and defeating the ends of justice last week.
Smit had maintained the murder was not premeditated, however, the State rejected his version and his plea in the matter.
Jerobejin was murdered, butchered, and some of his body parts discarded in a septic tank for allegedly stealing mangoes on February 2, 2022. It was also revealed that the teenager was chased by Smit’s bakkie and knocked over before being ‘apprehended’.
In September 2023, Smit was declared fit to stand trial.
On the day of the incident, Jerobejin and a friend went to pick mangoes in the upscale area of the town, but never returned home.
The family got news that he was knocked over by a motorist who then picked him up and left with him. It is alleged the man saw the children ’stealing’ the mangoes from someone’s tree.
Two days later, remains believed to be that of the boy were found in the drain at Smit’s Matzikama Street home.
DNA later confirmed it to be that of Jerobejin.
In a heartbreaking letter to the court last week, Jerobejin’s mother, Triesa van Wyk read out a letter to the court which explained the agony she has been in since her son’s brutal murder.
“My heart was broken into 100 pieces. Suddenly, life did not make sense to me. Not even my surviving daughter who was there could soothe my pain,” she read.
She stated her child’s life on earth was ended, not by God, but by the hand of a person and explained she struggles to accept that Smit could be a civilised human being because what parent murders another parent’s defenceless child.
“On the day we were taken to the morgue, I expected at least to see a body … only to be met by a small plastic bag with incomplete body parts. I still want to know: ‘What were my child’s last words? Did he call out my name? Was he already dead when you carved him up?" My heart is in shreds. You truly hurt my child terribly,” she said.
“To think that I gave birth to a whole body and got pieces back. I cannot express myself fully to give the court an idea of what truly goes on in my heart. I pray that God quiets the feelings I have toward the suspect. I don’t even know if time will heal this. I feel compelled to plead with the court to keep this type of monster out of the community completely. I say again, I will never, ever, ever, forgive him.”
The court further sentenced Smit to 15 years imprisonment for attempted murder, 10 years for kidnapping, five years for violating a corpse and three years imprisonment for defeating the ends of justice.
The sentences will run concurrently.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
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