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About Edna van Heerden
Edna van Heerden (1953 – 2006)
Brief overview:
Edna (56), from Kromdraai farm on the Rondebosch smallholdings along the Ledig road was murdered on January 2, 2006.
A farmer's wife saved her elderly mother's life on Monday by pulling her inside their house, away from an armed man, but was herself cold-bloodedly shot and killed by the attacker. Edna van Heerden, of Kromdraai farm on the Ledig road about 3 km from Makhado, Limpopo, died minutes after being shot in the chest.
A still-shocked Ona van Heerden (75), recounted on Tuesday how her daughter and only child had pulled her through the back door into the house, but was herself shot. "She'd fallen to the floor and I wiped the blood from her mouth. "I told Dries we must try to lift her up, but she was covered in so much blood that she slipped out of our hands. "This morning, we had to use a hosepipe to clear the blood from the house." Ona lives in a flat adjoining the house of her son-in-law and daughter. Nothing was stolen The grieving granny said: "One just cannot believe it - they just shoot people dead nowadays."
The killer did not steal a thing from the house. Edna and her husband, Dries, have lived on the fruit farm for the past 10 years. She worked at Sanlam insurance in Makhado. Transvaal Agricultural Union SA manager Marie Helm said on Tuesday that farmers were being mowed down in Limpopo. "It wasn't robbery, they didn't take even a cent, not even a blade of grass," she said.
The drama began on Monday about 19:30 when Ona walked from her flat to the farmhouse for supper. "I heard the dogs barking furiously. Edna opened the back door and the next moment we heard someone running behind us in the garden," said the mother. Edna pulled her mother into the house and a shot was fired. Then the attacker began kicking the dogs. Ona said: "When I looked again, Edna was standing in front of the sink with blood pouring out of her mouth. "I asked her: 'My child, where did they shoot you?' but she could no longer speak. She just pointed to her chest," she wept. Dries ran into the kitchen from the front of the house where he had been sitting on the stoep. He said: "I didn't know what to think. I ran back and tried to open my safe to get a firearm, but couldn't."
Brief Biography:
- Other Victims/Family
- Funeral/Memorial
- The Farm/Smallholding
- The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)
Attack Details:
- Date and time of attack
- Weapons
- Transvaal Agricultural Union chairperson Dries Joubert said on Tuesday that farm murders were well-planned: "They are carried out violently and cold-bloodedly." He said information indicated the firearm used to murder Edna might have been stolen during a December farm attack in Levubu.
- Items Stolen
- Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
- Torture, Gratuitous violence
- Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.
Perpetrator details:
- Number and Descriptions
- Arrests
- Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
- Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
- Trial/Conviction
- The 36-year-old Mavesere Tavengwa shot himself in the police cells on Louis Trichardt with a .22 pistol on June 2, 2006. Afterwards, it was revealed that he was a suspect in the murder of Mrs. Edna van Heerden. The late Mrs. Van Heerden's daughter, Carine, said that this was the last information they received from the police. Local Police Capt. Maano Sadiki confirmed this week that Tavengwa was indeed a suspect in the murder of Van Heerden. However, he said the murder case is still open and being investigated.
Additional Biographical Information:
Links to Media articles:
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Edna van Heerden's Timeline
| 1953 |
1953
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| 2006 |
January 2, 2006
Age 53
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Kromdraai farm, Rondebosch smallholdings, Louis Trichardt, Far North, LP, South Africa
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