WATCH | Hundreds gather in Klawer for funeral of murdered Jerobejin, 13
Image: Ruvan Boshoff
Hundreds of people gathered at the community hall in Klawer in the Western Cape on Saturday for the funeral of Jerobejin van Wyk, 13, who was murdered earlier this month.
An emotional Triesa van Wyk lit a candle for her son and wept silently as she left the podium flanked by a family member.
Before going to the hall, community members gathered outside the Van Wyk family home and formed a guard of honour to welcome his body. A family prayer was offered.
Among the mourners was Pastor Jan Nel, who said he was there to “cry with the family”.
“The boy's murder has affected all of us. We are all hurt ... we are not coping. I don't how the mother is coping if we can't even cope. The atmosphere has been very tense and we are suffering since his murder.”
Zoeron Stevens said as a mother she felt broken. “I feel sad. What happened here is terrible. As a mother myself I feel his mother's sadness. This could have happened to my child. So we are here to stand with the mother, who used to be my friend at some point. We all feel pain.”
Jerobejin disappeared on February 2 after he and a friend allegedly stole mangoes from the property of Daniel Smit, 56.
Smit chased the boys in his bakkie and allegedly drove into Jerobejin before throwing him into the back of his vehicle.
The teenager's body parts were later retrieved from a sewage pipe on Smit's property. After appearing in court on murder and kidnapping charges, he remains in custody.
A Van Wyk family member, who gave her name as Ayesha, said the community's pain was indescribable. “Words are not enough to describe how we feel. And there is no word that we can give to Triesa to comfort her. Only God can comfort her,” she said.
“When I was still little girl there was a child that was murdered in Klawer, but since then we've never experienced another child's murder. We are hurting so much, and that is why we are here to show our last respects to Jerobejin.”
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