Johannes Cornelius Marthinus de Witt

Johannes Cornelis Marthinus de Witt (1955 - 2003)

Brief overview:

Johannes (48), was shot dead when he tried to drive off in his Ola ice-cream truck to escape a hijacking on the N3 at Curry's Post on 27th October 2003. He sustained a gunshot wound to the head.

"Johannes had given two women a lift. One of them testified that she and another woman hitched a lift from De Witt near Cato Ridge and asked De Witt to drop them off on the Curry's Post off-ramp where the gang was waiting to pounce. She said that De Witt stopped at their request and as she alighted from the passenger seat, a gang member she knew only as Pani got into the seat and pointed a gun at De Witt. A vehicle carrying other gang members pulled up in front of De Witt's truck, who then drove off with Pani in the truck, she said. She then heard an explosive sound but did not know what the cause was - but the next day Pani told her he had shot De Witt."

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
• 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
  • Jackson Khumalo (38) was sentenced to life plus 48 years’ imprisonment by Judge Kevin Swain in Pietermaritzburg on 4th April 2008. Khumalo is already serving a 20-year sentence imposed last month by a regional court magistrate for a truck hijacking in 2005. Swain sentenced Khumalo to 18 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy and attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances of De Witt’s Ola ice-cream truck; to 20 years’ for conspiracy and robbery with aggravating circumstances of a Hestony horse and trailer with a load of liquor on September 20, 2004; and to five years’ on each of two counts of kidnapping the liquor truck driver, Siphiwe Jacob Zuma, and his conductor, Richard Ntombela.

Additional Biographical Information:

• Official cause of death : gunshot head
• Johannes married Anna Catharina Maria (born Potgieter) on 15/10/1988

Links to Media articles:

• https://archive.ph/qhHV7
• https://archive.ph/FsELr