It has been 13 years since former policeman Marius van der Westhuizen, who shot dead his three children in 2006, started serving his 24-year sentence, and on Thursday, the department of correctional services announced he will be released on parole next month.
It was Van der Westhuizen's third attempt at parole, all of which had been opposed by his ex-wife, Charlotte van der Westhuizen.
The Sunday Times covered the Van der Westhuizen case. In 2009, three years after the killings, the Western Cape high court heard that moments after shooting his children and attempting to take his own life, Van der Westhuizen said he regretted killing his children — and that he loved his wife.
This was the testimony of his fellow officer, Petrus Robberts, who recalled the phone conversation he had with Van der Westhuizen on the night he shot his children in the head.
He shot his handicapped daughter Bianca, 16, son Marius, 5, and daughter Antoinette, 21 months. Van der Westhuizen shot himself under the chin but recovered.
Robberts, who was director in the Western Cape's elite crime-fighting unit, the War Room, told the court that he was driving with Van der Westhuizen's wife, Charlotte, when the murder accused phoned him. This was after police had freed Van der Westhuizen's wife from their Brackenfell home where he had locked her up with the dead children.
“He told me he was sorry that he shot his three children,” said Robberts.
“He said he loved his wife and he told me he was going to shoot himself. I tried advising him not to do that, [but] he wanted to get on with the deed.”
Charlotte testified she was terrified by the sight of her husband's "black eyes" during a chance encounter five months after he shot dead their children.
In her testimony she gave intimate details of the marital problems she and her ex-policeman husband had experienced.
She described an encounter with her husband outside a shopping centre in Brackenfell in December 2006. He was out on bail at the time because Pollsmoor prison, where he had been held, could not provide him with adequate medical assistance.
“I came out of the mall and saw him. He looked at me with black eyes. I got a terrible fright,” she told the court.
“I was then too scared to even go to a mall in case I'd see him.”
She told the court how during their troubled marriage, her husband had threatened to burn down their house, and had once locked her out while the children were inside. Police colleagues conducted a hostage operation to free them.
On the night of the murders, she said her husband had drunk four glasses of whisky mixed with water. She said she had watched him shoot each child in the head.
In 2009, the high court found Van der Westhuizen guilty of murdering his three children, but the court said he had “diminished capacity” when he shot each of them while they were sleeping.
The court found that his work and marriage stress, depression and personality disorders had all negatively affected his mental state when he shot his children. He was also described as a “narcissistic and obsessive” person with alcohol dependence.
Both Van der Westhuizen and his now-ex wife were police officers. In December 2023, Charlotte spoke to Newzroom Afrika where she said she was still a police officer and she found the job challenging.
“Sometimes you ask yourself why are you still in the police when you couldn't even protect your own three children. They threw that against me in court as well. It's not just my heart that is broken. My soul is broken,” she said, fighting back the tears.
The Sunday Times reported during the trial that Van der Westhuizen's lawyer had put to Charlotte that her husband had accused her of destabilising their marriage by choosing a job at the Kuils River police station over him, and of refusing to kiss him in the mornings because this would ruin her makeup.
She confessed to contemplating her own life since the ordeal.
Charlotte added she was scared for her own life and had wanted her ex-husband kept behind bars. She had vowed to continuously oppose his bid for parole, saying she would do so “until her last breath”.
DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said on Thursday this was Van der Westhuizen's third appearance before the parole board.
“Van der Westhuizen has accepted responsibility for his crimes and has participated in therapeutic and other rehabilitation interventions. The victims were involved in the parole hearing process and have been informed of the decision,” Nxumalo said.
He will need to attend pre-release programmes to help him transition to life after his incarceration and upon his release will also need to complete the remainder of his 24-year sentence under community corrections, monitored according to parole conditions.
“His sentence is to expire in September 2034,” said Nxumalo.
