A grieving widow says she watched as their landlord of six weeks shot and killed her husband when they went to his house to enquire why he had cut off their water and electricity.
Marlize Knoetze of the North West said she and her husband Frederick were at Paul Badenhorst’s gate begging him to open so they could speak “like adults” when he suddenly approached with a gun, walked towards them, yelled “I will shoot you” then pulled the trigger. The bullet hit her husband in the head and the 66-year-old man collapsed.
“He then said ‘run before I shoot you too’ and I fled,” the 49-year-old woman said.
“I then came back with a car and my son and I put Frederick inside and rushed him to hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.”
Knoetze, her husband Frederick and their two children moved to their new place only last month.
She said the house, situated on a plot close to Hartbeespoort Dam, was affordable and close to their daughter’s school hence they decided to rent it.
As the husband was the one dealing with the landlord, Knoetze said she did not know what the agreement was when it came to rent and paying for services.
However, a few days after moving in the landlord cut off their water, she said.
Knoetze said when they went to enquire why he said: “I cannot provide you with a place to stay as well as water and electricity.”
She said the landlord then called his lawyers and they drafted an agreement “on a piece of paper that they took with”.
Herman Moloi
www.sowetanlive.co.za
