November 28, 2006, 12:30
Two women have been sentenced in the Vereeniging Regional Magistrate's Court to 45 years in prison for the murder of the one's son, News 24 reported today.
Four-year-old Jandre Botha's mother, Hanlie Botha (32) was sentenced to 15-years imprisonment while Thea de Nysschen (33), her former partner, was sentenced to 20 years.
Yesterday, Retha Willemse, the regional magistrate asked Botha what the four-year-old had done wrong. "Was he murdered because he was an innocent, easy, friendly and good-natured child? Is that what he did wrong?"
De Nysschen, who had been mistreating the child, was accused of beating him to death with her fists.
Additional five years
Both women were sentenced to an additional five years for assaulting Jandre and two years each for not getting medical attention for the four-year-old.
Jandre died on June 12, 2003 at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital from multiple injuries to his head and body.
Nine days earlier he was brutally assaulted and admitted to the Vereeniging Medi-Clinic where it had been reported that part of his brain "was dying".
Willemse said that in preparing for sentencing she had done a lot of research and found that victims had usually "done something” before they were killed. But, she still could not fathom out what Jandre had done "wrong". She told a weeping Botha that she was a "passive participant" in her son's murder, because she had done nothing to stop De Nysschen when the child was being beaten.
Willemse said Botha had failed miserably in her duty towards her child. She also made reference to a pre-trial report in which De Nysschen, herself had said Jandre was a busy, loving, beautiful child. Willemse added that De Nysschen had become frustrated and irritated because everyone was always making such a fuss about him.
Sustained injuries
De Nysschen who dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief from time to time was asked if that was all the child did wrong. De Nysschen and Botha maintained until the end that Jandre had fallen in the bath and this was how he had sustained injuries that led to his death.
The magistrate quoted from the testimony from paediatrician Elna Gibson, who had said in previous evidence: "All children who fall and are injured, look as if they have been playing. This child looked as if he had come out of a war."
She also referred to the efforts of Jandre's father, Jan, who had done everything he could to get the child away from the two women, to no avail.
Jan Botha said he had struggled for more than a year to get control and custody of Jandre, especially after De Nysschen had been acquitted on a charge of assaulting the boy by a court in Mokopane. She was suspected of having hit Jandre in the face with a golf club, but was acquitted because he was too young to give evidence against her. - Sapa
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