The Oudtshoorn Regional Court has sentenced drug addict, Drezene Jonkerman, to an effective 20 years direct imprisonment following her conviction for the murder of her son after she claimed to have seen the boy’s father’s face on him as she washed him.

In a plea and sentencing agreement with the State, Jonkerman told the court that on  11 August 2024, her birthday, she was at home at Korhaan Avenue, Oudtshoorn, preparing to go to church. Her 7-year-old son, Ashwin Jonkerman, was with her. A friend came to her house, and they used drugs.

When the friend left, she finished preparing for church and woke up the deceased. She started washing him and was thinking about the boy’s father. She claimed that she and the boys’s father had a very bad relationship, and while washing her son, she  she saw “his father’s face in her minds-eye” and got very 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. She came back from church and found his limp body still lying on the bed. She then called a neighbour and an ambulance which confirmed that the deceased had passed away. She admitted that she did foresee that by strangling him, she could cause his death and despite that knowledge, she still proceeded to strangle him.

She further admitted that her intention was to kill him and had no lawful reason to kill him. In her mitigation of sentence, the 39-year-old mother of two other minor children claimed that she and her ex-boyfriend, the father of the deceased, had a very tumultuous relationship. She claimed that he used drugs, assaulted and raped her on various occasions. She did not report these incidents because she was financially dependent on him.

Regional court prosecutor Goulding Hyron countered this claim as he led evidence where the deceased’s father denied the claims. There is also no official case that the accused opened against her ex-partner. The ex-partner conceded that they used drugs, but her addiction worsened, and she started to sell groceries and the furniture of their house.

He ended their relationship due to her drug use and months later he was informed that 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 that she could not go to church as druglords have assaulted her because of outstanding drug debts.

Hyron argued that the deceased’s murder traumatised his father and his siblings who are also still minors. The offence was heinous, uncalled for and the community is still in shock by the fact that a mother has killed her child in the manner that the accused have done. The accused was a drug addict who used drugs that morning, killed her child, went to church without getting any medical help for the deceased.

The court sentenced the accused to 25 years imprisonment with five years suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of murder committed during the period of suspension. The court ordered the accused to serve two thirds of her sentence before she is considered for release on parole. The court declared her unfit to work with children when she is released from prison and unfit to possess a firearm.

Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Nicolette Bell, expressed shock at the callous murder committed by a mother on her own child. she emphasised the importance of dealing with the scourge of drugs and that those who commit crimes against the most vulnerable in our society.

tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za

Weekend Argus 

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