The NPA is in favor of a life sentence for child killer Daniel Smit

CAPITAL – The state has listened to the desperate pleas of Klawer residents who say they want Daniel Smit locked up for life.

On Tuesday, the High Court in Vredendal resolved the arguments on the aggravation and leniency of the sentence in the case against the 58-year-old child killer.

Smit murdered 13-year-old Jerobejin van Wyk in Klawra ​​in February 2022 after accusing him and a friend of stealing fruit from his property.

He admitted that at the age of 13 he became involved with a Chinese occult group.

He was taught black magic and spell casting, and over time became involved in Satanism, but after the birth of his son in 2000, he became a Christian.

Smit was found guilty of premeditated murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, disturbing a corpse and defeating the ends of justice and will be sentenced on Monday.

The state opposed the defense’s request to sentence the defendant to 30 years in prison and argued that justice for Jerobejin’s mother would only provide life imprisonment.

Eric Ntabazalila from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA): “We believed that there was nothing special about this defendant, he was just another normal murderer who took the life of a 13-year-old boy in a very gruesome way, and we argued that there was nothing to let the court go away from that specified minimum sentence of life imprisonment.”