'He looked like his father' – Western Cape woman jailed for killing seven-year-old son
The Oudtshoorn Regional Court in the Western Cape has sentenced 39-year-old Drezene Jonkerman to an effective 20 years’ direct imprisonment after she admitted to the murder of her seven-year-old son, Ashwin Jonkerman.
The child’s death occurred on his mother’s birthday, August 11, 2024, following a morning of drug use.
Jonkerman entered into a plea and sentencing agreement with the State in which she confessed to strangling her son after hallucinating that his face resembled that of his father, with whom she claimed to have had a toxic and abusive relationship.
“A friend came to her house, and they used drugs. When the friend left, she finished preparing for church and woke up the child. She started washing him and was thinking about the boy’s father while washing the deceased.
“She claimed that she and the deceased’s father had a very bad relationship, and she saw the child’s father in her mind’s eye while washing the deceased and got very angry. She started strangling him until his body became limp and carried him to the bedroom,” said National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional communications manager, Eric Ntabazalila.
According to the plea agreement, Jonkerman and a friend had used drugs at her Korhaan Avenue home in Oudtshoorn on the morning of the incident.
After her friend left, she began preparing for church and woke Ashwin to wash him. It was during this routine that she claimed to have been overwhelmed with anger and strangled the boy until his body became limp.
She then placed his body in the bedroom and attended a church service. On returning home, she found his lifeless body where she had left him, and subsequently called a neighbour and ambulance services, who confirmed the child’s death.
In mitigation, Jonkerman described a history of abuse at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, the child’s father, including allegations of physical and sexual violence which she said went unreported due to financial dependency.
However, regional court prosecutor Goulding Hyron challenged these claims, presenting evidence from the father who denied the abuse allegations. While he admitted to drug use, he said the relationship ended after Jonkerman began selling household items to fund her addiction.
“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 drug lords 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.”
Jonkerman was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with five years suspended for five years on condition she is not convicted of murder during the suspension period. The court ordered she serve at least two-thirds of her sentence before being eligible for parole.
She was also declared unfit to work with children or to possess a firearm upon release.
Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Nicolette Bell, condemned the act, describing the murder as callous”.
“She 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,” Ntabazalila added.
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