A drug-addicted mother who strangled her seven-year-old son on her birthday before going to church has been sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in Oudtshoorn.
Drezene Jonkerman, 39, said in a plea and sentencing agreement with the state she was preparing to go to church on August 11 2024 with her son Ashwin.
“A friend came to her house and they used drugs. When the friend left, she finished preparing for church and woke up [Ashwin], National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said on Thursday.
She started washing him, thinking about the child’s father with whom she had a bad relationship, saw him in her “mind's eye” and became extremely angry.
“She started strangling him until his body became limp and carried him to the bedroom. She left his limp body in the bedroom and went to church.”
Upon returning home, she called a neighbour and an ambulance. The child was dead.
In mitigation of sentence, she claimed to have had a tumultuous relationship with the father who used drugs and assaulted her. She did not report the incidents as she was financially dependent on him.
Regional court prosecutor Goulding Hyron disputed her version, leading evidence in which the boy’s father denied the claims. There were no official cases opened against her ex-partner.
He conceded they used drugs but said her dependency worsened to the point that she started selling groceries and their furniture. He ended the relationship and months later learnt she had killed their child.
“A week before the murder, she was asked by her pastor, who was also her employer, why she didn’t go to church. She told her pastor she could not go to church as drug lords assaulted her because of outstanding drug debts,” said Ntabazalila.
Hyron argued the murder had traumatised the child’s father, the offence was heinous, uncalled for and had shocked the community.
Drezene was sentenced by the Oudtshoorn regional court to 25 years' imprisonment with five years suspended for five years on condition she is not convicted of murder during the period of suspension. The court ordered her to serve two thirds of the sentence before being considered for release on parole.
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