'I’m glad they will not harm other people:' Daughter of slain elderly woman

“I’m glad they will not be able to harm other people and people are protected from them.”

This is Elna Brand's response to her mother’s killers being handed lengthy jail terms.

Her mother, 86-year-old Engela van Wyk, was one of four elderly women killed in Gauteng and Mpumalanga in 2018 and 2019. Van Wyk was murdered in June 2018 at a retirement village in Springs, east of Johannesburg.

“With these sentences, I think many more lives will be protected. These people were heartless and have shown they don’t have feelings, if you look at how they killed their victims,” Brand told TimesLIVE.

She is still hurt by how her mother’s life was cut short by John du Plooy and Shaun Oosthuizen, from Munsieville. In all the cases the same modus operandi was used: overpowering the women and stuffing their mouths with a cloth before tying them up and making off with small items, including jewellery and cellphones that were easy to transport and sell.

Oosthuizen, 42, is serving four life terms plus 80 years imposed by the Pretoria regional court for the murders of Van Wyk, Lillas Merry, 77, in Roodepoort, Barbara Fenton, 74, in Alberton and Henrietta Potgieter, 85, in Mbombela.

This week, Du Plooy, 32, was sentenced in the Roodepoort regional court to life imprisonment for murder plus 15 years for aggravated robbery for the attack on Merry. He was already serving two life sentences and an additional 30 years for the Springs and Alberton murders. Charges against him for the Mpumalanga murder were withdrawn.

Van Wyk’s son-in-law Phillip Brand said they still question why she was murdered for her cellphone and jewellery. “Why did they murder her? Why didn’t they just take the stuff and leave her?”

He described Van Wyk as a loving person.

“She looked after everyone and was a strong woman. She visited and prayed for fellow pensioners at the old age home where she lived.”

Merry's family also question her “senseless killing”.

“She didn’t have to die for such small things,” her eldest daughter, Vivienne Pearson, previously told TimesLIVE.

“My mother was a woman who didn’t have much. She relied mostly on her family for financial assistance. Though she was old she was healthy and we never expected her to die so soon and in such a senseless way.”

Hawks Mpumalanga head Maj-Gen Zodwa Mokoena applauded the investigating team.

“We appreciate the collaboration between the investigators and judiciary [in two provinces] for ensuring the heartless criminals who tormented the elderly who could not defend themselves are removed from the community.”

TimesLIVE