His father, artist Manie St Clair Bothma, 63, was murdered in his Karen Park home last Wednesday
GENOCIDE SCENE: Dali Bothma explains how his father, artist Manie St Clair Bothma, was murdered at their home in Karen Park, Pretoria North
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Pretoria - The room had yet to be cleaned up; cushions and other items had been turned upside down.
Furniture had been disarranged and his father’s artwork was on the floor.
Dali relayed how his father was shot in cold blood in his house.
He said he was present when the horrific incident took place at about 1.20am.
“Everything happened in split seconds.
“I was in my room. Suddenly I heard a loud noise from the living room.
“I opened my door and stuck my head out. I saw a man facing the opposite direction, and he turned around with a big gun pointing itat me.”
Dali said he quickly went back to his room and shut his door and held the handle up so it could not open easily.
“I was scared the man would shoot me through the door.
“I then heard my father screaming please don’t shoot me; take whatever you want, just don’t shoot....”
“I then heard the sound of a gun,” Dali said.
A few seconds after the shots were fired, his father screamed twice “Don’t shoot me”, he added.
Dali then heard a door slamming and a car speeding off.
Bothma said he went out of his room up to his father in the living room.
“He was just lying there. I screamed ‘daddy... daddy’, but he did not respond,” he said.
He then ran out of the house and round the complex screaming for help.
He saw a bathroom light on in one of the houses and went in, asking the woman who opened up to call an ambulance and the police, as his father had been shot.
Shortly afterwards, an ADT vehicle arrived with the police and paramedics. His father was declared dead at the scene.
The perpetrators drove off with Bothma’s Kia Picanto, cellphone and paintings which were in the boot.
Two days after the incident, the house was broken into and only cigarettes on the table were taken.
The artist’s other son, Picasso, 29, said he could not understand why the perpetrators chose their father’s house and took his car, the cheapest as compared to others in the complex.
“What is it that they were after? My brother was also here; why didn’t they shoot him too?”
Police spokesman Lieutenant Kay Makhubela said a case of murder was being investigated.
A neighbour, who refused to be named, said she heard loud voices on the night of the incident, but thought he was yelling at his son as he would normally do.
The artist had been living in the complex for eight months, and his son said they always felt safe as the security was very tight.
The neighbour said she was just as surprised as everyone else about the murder, as Bothma sr was a “beautiful soul who was friendly towards everyone. People liked him a lot”.
He used to sell his paintings everywhere and to anyone, including government officials, doctors, lawyers, former heavyweight boxer Francois Botha and singer Patricia Lewis, according to his sons.
He once gave paintings to basketball great Michael Jordan and golfer Tiger Woods.
He was buried on the same day in Laudium
http://iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/son-tells-of-artist-dad-s-bloody-death-2000558
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