INLSA
Mathew Naidoo
Tania Broughton and Kamini Padayachee
Moments after being labelled an “arrogant, boastful conman” who would lie to get out of a tight spot, convicted double-murderer Mathew Naidoo was holding court with the press, proclaiming his innocence.
“I feel like Denzel Washington in the movie The Hurricane,” he said, referring to the story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who helped to prove his innocence.
Sitting in the dock after being found guilty of murdering Johan and Rickie Lotter, Naidoo turned on the charm, smiled for cameras and coped with a barrage of questions willingly and seamlessly.
“I didn’t do it,” he insisted.
“I did not plan any murders or take part in it. I didn’t kill anyone. I bear no grudges against anyone including the judge and prosecutors.
“At the end of the day, they were just doing their jobs.”
Then the man who Judge Shyam Gyanda called a “pathological liar” turned to wave to his mother, Rita, who was sobbing in the gallery, and said: “It’s okay, Mom, be strong.”
Trembling and being comforted by her pastor, Rita told reporters she had “nothing to say” and only wanted to speak to her son.
Unlike his co-accused, siblings Hardus and Nicolette Lotter – who seemed distressed by the constant flashing of cameras and barrage of questions – Naidoo showed the confidence that the judge alluded to in finding that he had completely conned the brother and sister into believing that he was the son of God and God spoke through him.
The judge said there was ample corroboration in the evidence of Hardus and Nicolette to this effect and it was validated by Naidoo’s own diary of prayers, in which he referred to himself as the son of God.
“That he described himself as the son of God with powers of prophecy is a fact accepted by this court as true.
“The question to be asked is how it was possible for two tertiary educated people to fall so easily under his influence?
Brainwashed
“The answer lies in the evidence of psychologist Professor Lourens Schlebusch who said such brainwashing has been used on a very large scale in other countries, where people have been brainwashed into committing mass suicide.”
He said Nicolette had been vulnerable when she met Naidoo, believing she was the victim of witchcraft and was being raped by a spirit.
Naidoo was “aware of her vulnerability from the outset” and saw the opportunity “to take advantage of her”.
Hardus, on the other hand, did not initially trust Naidoo – a view shared by Johan Lotter who did not consider him worthy of his daughter.
Naidoo had managed to “captivate Hardus” and he became the brother he did not have, with his sister all the while reaffirming that Naidoo had the powers he claimed to have.
And then he managed to persuade them both that their parents were evil, “restructuring the way they believed”.
He said both Hardus and Nicolette, while admitting to the murders and knowing them to be wrong, said they had acted under instructions from Naidoo which they had to obey.
The judge said while Schlebusch had said it would have been difficult for them to disobey these instructions, it would not have been impossible and through their own evidence they had shown that they had thought for themselves at times.
“Their belief in the powers of Naidoo are, at best, mitigating circumstances which may result in diminished criminal capacity but does not excuse them from criminal liability.”
Naidoo, he said, was a “glib character” who “fancies himself as being clever” and thought everyone else was “quite stupid”. He had tried to “lead and mislead” his lawyers in the trial by saying he would plead guilty and then changing his mind.
The judge said it was clear Naidoo intended for Hardus to be the “fall guy” and for him to inherit, through Nicolette.
“He is a pathological liar. He wanted to fleece the Lotters. He displayed the conduct of a con artist and while the ordinary man in the street may find it laughable (that they believed him), we have expert testimony about thousands of people who have been conned by charismatic leaders and who lost their lives for their stupidity.”
