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Murdered parents Johan and Rickie Lotter. Picture: supplied<\/p>\n
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It was possibly the biggest test of his faith when the Reverend Willem Lotter had to practise what he preached and try to forgive his niece and nephew for murdering their father \u2013 his brother. <\/p>\n
The Dutch Reformed Church dominee from Cape Town said forgiveness was a process \u2013 and he had only just begun that process. <\/p>\n
He publicly apologised for turning his back on the siblings. And his eyes were brimming with tears when he hugged Nicolette and Hardus Lotter as they made their way out of the court to begin serving their prison sentences. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that the court process has produced the truth that we were longing for,\u201d he said in a statement released on behalf of the family afterwards. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are exhausted\u2026 emotionally drained because of the gruesome details. But the truth enables us to take on the long walk of reconciliation. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope to now carry on with our lives. We are realistic that closure will not happen overnight and the process has only just begun,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Earlier, Lotter testified in mitigation of sentence, reducing both Hardus and Nicolette to tears when he said: \u201cI stand here on behalf of your parents. If they were here, they would stand in mitigation for you,\u201d before repeating the murdered couple\u2019s last words \u2013 \u201cI love you my child\u201d and \u201cmy son, we can work this out\u201d \u2013 as they were being killed. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to forgive you. We still love you. We hate what you have done,\u201d said Lotter. <\/p>\n
\u201cForgive me that I did not give you water when you were thirsty and clothes when you had to appear in court and for not visiting you in prison. I was angry. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo family member will welcome you into their homes because they still do not trust you completely. We have only just begun to forgive and we trust in God that sometime we will do so completely.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lotter described Nicolette\u2019s and Hardus\u2019s family as \u201cvery normal\u201d and functional, with the usual ups and downs. <\/p>\n
Hardus was an even-tempered \u201clovable boy\u201d, interested in all things electronic and how things were made. <\/p>\n
Nicolette was an introvert with a strong will and an artist\u2019s temperament, more interested in playing her guitar than socialising. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was always fascinated with the supernatural and then she became interested in witchcraft. I did my best to convince her that the redemption power of the blood of Jesus Christ was sufficient protection to keep us from evil, but she became obsessed. And this obsession led her on a mission to find answers and this led to the worst tragedy imaginable,\u201d Lotter said. <\/p>\n
He described the family\u2019s agony, first at learning of the murders, then on hearing that Nicolette and Hardus were responsible, and realising on that Johan and Rickie had been \u201cbetrayed from within\u201d \u2013 and that no amount of security cameras could have protected them. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother lost her ability to speak and died three days later of a stroke. My father slid into dementia. I thank God that he is demented, as is Rickie\u2019s mother, and this (trial) will pass them by. <\/p>\n
\u201cOthers in the family have had to go for psychiatric treatment and are on medication. Many of us are still stuck somewhere in the bereavement process.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lotter said that, when Hardus turned 21 in jail in March 2009, he and his sister, Antoinette, had gone to the prison \u201cto give him the gift of forgiveness\u201d. <\/p>\n
Following this, the family had had a \u201crestorative justice session\u201d with the siblings, \u201cwhich was a very difficult encounter\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe met murderers that day, but we also met children we knew and loved. It was the start of forgiveness.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said that the crime warranted \u201csevere punishment\u201d, but both needed psychological help and Nicolette needed to overcome her pre-occupation with witchcraft. <\/p>\n
\u201cSociety will never forget this crime, and neither will they,\u201d said Lotter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
supplied Murdered parents Johan and Rickie Lotter. Picture: supplied It was possibly the biggest test of his faith when the Reverend Willem Lotter had to practise what he preached and try to forgive his niece and nephew for murdering their father \u2013 his brother. The Dutch Reformed Church dominee from Cape Town said forgiveness was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-9191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}