Generations: The Legacy actor Rapulana Seiphemo must be charged with two counts of murder and attempted murder.
This was said by Jody van Zyl, a survivor of the accident that killed his brother Donovan van Zyl (24) and his brother-in-law Jerry Coertze (28) last Sunday night.
One of the two passengers in Seiphemo’s car also died. The other one was in hospital at the time of going to press.
“This man must be charged with two counts of murder for killing my brother and our brother-in-law. He must also be charged with attempted murder for trying to kill me,” said Jody.
“I’m actually worried that while we lost two people and I also almost died, nobody is reaching out or cares about us. They care about him because he is an actor.”
Jody (25) alleged that Seiphemo, driving a white Audi A4, “flew past another car” and hit theirs from behind on the N14 highway near Diepsloot township in Joburg.
“I was sitting on the front passenger seat, and we were listening to music on the phone, when he hit our car from behind,” said Jody.
“The next thing, I saw myself being taken by an ambulance to Kalafong Hospital. I hope the police drew blood from him because we heard he was under the influence of alcohol. It’s not true that it was a head-on collision.”
Jodi, still in pain when Sunday World visited him at his family home in Krugersdorp on the West Rand, said he bit his tongue and suffered head and neck injuries.
He said police visited him in hospital and asked questions about the accident.
“I told them we don’t drink alcohol and that we were sober when the accident happened.”
Gauteng police spokesman Tshekiso Mofokeng said police were investigating a case of culpable homicide.
“The drivers of both vehicles are considered to be wrong until enough evidence is produced to prove who was wrong,” said Mofokeng.
“Our detectives are taking statements from the survivors of the accident and gathering more information on it. We have yet to obtain a statement from Seiphemo because he is not in a condition to talk to us. Once that process is completed, we will issue a statement.”
Mofokeng appealed to the Coertze family to remain calm until the investigations were completed.
“We must not be emotional and start saying we must charge people with murder or say things in the media that will be used against us in the court of law.”
Asked if police had taken blood samples to test if both drivers were under the influence of liquor, he said: “Remember, the accident was attended to by metro cops and not us. We came at later stage, but we believe they drew blood from both drivers.”
Jerry’s mother, Renel Coertze, said Jody would return to the hospital after the funeral for possible surgery as doctors detected blood in his brain.
“He was released prematurely so that he could attend the funeral, which may be on Tuesday,” she said.
Renel said the untimely death of Donovan left his family poorer as he was the only bread winner. She also said the family was financially struggling to organise him a decent funeral.
“W e don’t have money to organise him a decent funeral. We appeal to good Samaritans to help.”
Renel said the family did not know how they would educate Donovan’s three-year-old son Riaan. That’s because his fiancée Althea was unemployed.
She said the family was devastated because no-one from the Seiphemo family had reached out to check how they were coping.
‘My hubby loved me’
What started out as a romantic evening with a Valentine’s Day dinner between Althea and her husband Donovan van Zyl ended in tragedy when the two brothers and their brother-in-law were involved in a deadly car accident on Sunday night.
An emotional Althea said she would probably also be dead by now had she not declined an invitation to drive to Pretoria with her husband and her two brothers.
“He asked me to come with them, but I asked him to remain behind. I am no longer comfortable driving long distances with him because a taxi hit our car from behind while driving together from a picnic in October 2014,” she said.
“His last words to me before they left for Pretoria were ‘baba, I love you. See you later.’ He was such a loving husband and father. I am not sure how am I going to cope without him around. He really loved me and our son Riaan.”
Althea said Donovan told her that Sunday morning he was feeling bad that he did not have enough money to buy her a Valentine’s gift.
“I told him that he should not worry because I knew he loved me. I promised him that I would cook us a nice Valentine’s dinner because he had bought lots of food after being paid on Friday,” said an emotional Althea.
“After dinner, we sat on the couch cuddling while watching movies on DVD. I did not know that those were the last moments I was spending with my husband.
“We were looking forward to our fifth anniversary in June and had made big plans.
“Now he is no more.”
-sundayworld