Apart from being a politician and a family man‚ the Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor gunned down on Thursday was also a spiritual man.
Johannes Baatjies was a pastor in Danielskuil in the Northern Cape‚ 62km from Postmasburg. He was also the councillor of Ward 2
Baatjies and another DA councillor‚ as well as two Kgatelopele Community Forum councillors‚ were to form a coalition and take control of the Kgatelopele municipality from the African National Congress. He was to have been officially sworn in on Thursday.
“He was a well-known person and a spiritual leader in the community of Danielskuil. When you spoke about Baatjies everybody knew him‚” said Northern Cape DA leader Andrew Louw. And it was not by default‚ but purely by design‚ that he won a ward that was staunch ANC for many years; that he won it away from them on the 3rd of August… we won that ward under the leadership of Baatjies.”
Baatjies was found lying on his face on the main road between Danielskuil and Postmasburg on Wednesday evening. He had been shot twice in the head and once in the upper body‚ and dragged a distance before being dumped.
It is suspected that his murder was politically motivated‚ because Baatjies had received death threats shortly after winning Ward 2.
Police spokesperson Mariam Mochologi-Maleeme said police are still investigating the matter.
“The passenger he was travelling with sustained gunshot wounds and was taken to hospital. He is in a critical condition. At this moment‚ he is our only hope for us to crack the case as he is the only witness‚” Mochologi-Maleeme said.
“That community and we as the DA are bleeding … it is very unfortunate that we lost that man in such a sad and brutal manner. We all know we are going to die‚ but seeing him die in the manner that he did‚ is very unfortunate because he was killed like an animal‚” said Louw.
But he said he was not in a position to confirm whether Baatjies’ killing was linked to the election results.
“I don’t want to cast any aspersions at this stage. We deliberately want to refrain from making any accusations especially because I don’t qualify to make such statements. The only thing we want to do is to allow the police to do their work and once that is done‚ we will be able to say what happened‚” said the provincial leader.
Baatjies leaves behind his wife Dora and three sons.
— TMG Digital