We hear detail here from wife of murdered Pretoria writer, killed in cold blood …

We hear detail here from wife of murdered Pretoria writer, killed in cold blood

Murder of writer: His wife was on her knees in the kitchen
She knelt on her knees on the kitchen floor, while one of the five armed men threatened to shoot her when she heard the shot and Tom dropped next to her. Thus, Retha Gouws, the writer Tom Gouws (56)’s wife, told Thursday morning after Tom was hit over the head at about 20:00 last night and was shot from behind in the back. “Tom fell down next to me and I saw he was dead.”

A shocked but calm Retha says she and Tom were out all day in Pretoria, and came home around 20:00 on Wednesday. They live in the east of Pretoria in a security complex. Tom opened the front door and the couple ran into five armed men. “It felt like ten seconds, then everything was over.” The men forced Retha to stand on her knees and tied her hands. “I shouted incredibly loudly. The men spoke English to each other and then told me if I did not stop, they were going to shoot me. “Tom chased to us and was probably afraid that the men would do something to me.

“The next moment someone hit him over the head. Then they shot him from behind through the heart. He fell right next to me on the kitchen floor. “When Tom fell, the men ran away.” Retha tells the couple’s youngest son, Joshua (17), was in the upper level in his room of their home. The men tied his hands in front of him. He managed to get away and jumped on the roof through the bathroom window to seek help from the neighbours. When the men left, Retha ran to the neighbours to seek Joshua. “I wanted to see if they had hurt my child.” The neighbours called the police. “The police were there soon,” said Retha.
According to her, Tom was working on a chapter about poet Breyten Breytenbach. “His computer was stolen. I do not even know if the work he was doing was stored on a hard drive. ” Tom’s cell phone and her handbag were also stolen. Tom has been very busy at New Earth Ministries lately. Already the couple’s children, two of whom are abroad, were heading back to South Africa. Retha said their son Tom Jr. (30) left for Namibia on Wednesday morning and had been “sitting around a braai fire” in Etosha when he heard the news of his father’s death. Tom Jr. is married to Danel and they have four children. The couple’s daughter Anjo-Marí Gouws, 33, who is married to Johannes van der Horst, is in Toronto, Canada, for further study. Margreet Gouws (28) is in Shanghai and Emma-Maryn Gouws (19), their youngest daughter, wrote matric last year and is now taking a bridging year. Joshua is in gr. 11 in De Wilgers High School. https://www.netwerk24.com/Nuus/Misdaad/moord-op-skrywer-sy-vrou-was-op-haar-kniee-in-kombuis-20180726

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