Durban - A four-year-old boy whose grandmother was brutally killed by her gardener suffers separation anxiety and asks to visit her in heaven.
This is according to a victim impact statement handed into the court following the murder of Sharon Deetlefs.
The 62-year-old Pietermaritzburg grandmother was strangled with the cord of a hair dryer on December 30, 2021.
She had been living alone. Her gardener Douglas Mataula, 35, was sentenced to 30 years behind bars this week by the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
Mataula pleaded guilty to robbing Deetlefs on two different occasions in one month and then killing her.
In his plea he said he needed money for his family in Zimbabwe and another time for food for the festive season.
Deetlef’s daughter Taralyn told the court that their family was in shock and battling to accept her mother was gone forever.
She said her mom and her four-year-old son were best friends.
Taralyn said her mother had cared for her son since he was four months old during the day while she worked.
“They spent every afternoon together, they would paint, play, bake and create different kinds of art. He was her life, she was his,” she said.
She said her son now suffered from separation anxiety when she left him at school, worried that he may never see them again.
“He will never understand while he will never see his nana (granny) again, and often asks if he can visit her in heaven,” she said.
Taralyn described her mother as kind and generous and a support system for the family.
“My mom was our anchor, our strength, there is now a gaping hole that she is no longer with us,” she said.
She said Deetlefs’ parents, aged 82 and 85, were overcome with grief.
“She took them to the bank, to do grocery shopping and to doctor’s appointments. My grandparents are grief-stricken,” she said.
Judge Thoba Poyo Dlwati sentenced Mataula to five years each for housebreaking, 25 years for murder, and 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances. All sentences will run concurrently.
IOL