Heunis farm attack: Suspect found guilty

AfriForum welcomes the decision by the Northern Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on 24 March 2020 to find Justice Sethlangu guilty of the murder of Johan Heunis, murdered husband of Mariandra Heunis. AfriForum’s Trauma Support Unit has been supporting Mariandra and her family since 2017.

Sethlangu shot Johan continuously in the head – in front of his pregnant wife and four-year-old daughter – on 1 October 2016 on the Heunis’s smallholding in the Kameeldrift area. Judge William Letsoalo also found Sethlangu guilty on three charges of housebreaking with the intent to rob, as well as on a charge of the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Johan Kloppers, a trauma support officer at AfriForum se Trauma Support Unit, has been providing emotional support as well as trauma counselling to Mariandra and her family since 2017. A representative of AfriForum accompanied her to court every day, while AfriForum supported her in preparing for court because she was subpoenaed to testify.

According to Kloppers, AfriForum and the Heunis family welcomes the fact that justice prevailed in the end.

“It has been a long road up to this point and AfriForum’s Trauma Support Unit will continue to provide the Heunis family with emotional support. Although the trauma of the farm attack left a permanent car on the Heunis family, it brings some comfort to know that at least one of the farm attackers must now pay for his actions. AfriForum becomes involved in cases like this one to ensure that justice prevails and to support victims of these horrible crimes,” Klopper concludes.