Civic organisation Action Society is appalled by the news that Marius van der Westhuizen, the former police officer who murdered his three children, is once again trying to get out on parole.
On 28 July 2006, he fatally shot his children Marius (8), Antoinette (21 months), and Bianca (16, who was disabled) at their Brackenfell home.
The killings were carried out in front of his then-wife, Charlotte, also a police officer at the time during a confrontation.
He was convicted in the same year and sentenced to 24 years in prison.
“This renewed attempt to regain his freedom is not only a grave insult to justice but also a traumatic reopening of wounds for the children’s mother and a deeply disturbed public still haunted by the brutality of his crimes,” Kaylynn Palm, head of Action Society‘s Action Centre, said last week when learning of the parole application.
“Despite claims of work-related stress and depression, the court found his actions to be deliberate and calculated,” says Palm.
A matter of morality
After serving just 13 years, Van der Westhuizen applied for parole three times. His third attempt was approved in June 2024.
The parole board claimed he had “accepted responsibility” and participated in rehabilitation programmes.
But following a public outrage, the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board stepped in and overturned the decision in August 2024, due to the victim impact statement by Charlotte van der Westhuizen not having been taken into consideration.
“The people of South Africa are subject to high levels of violent crime, inadequate punitive measures and rash decisions to grant parole.
“In this case, it would have been a miscarriage of justice to release an offender after serving only 13 years for the cold-blooded murder of his three children.
“In cases such as this one, there is more to consider than just the rights of the parole applicant.
“The interests of the community and the victims – such as the children’s mother, Charlotte, who opposed the application because she fears for her life – should be given just as much consideration,” the Freedom Front Plus then said in a statement.
According to Palm it is more than just a mere administrative matter but a moral one.
“The fact that Van der Westhuizen is once again seeking legal leniency is disgraceful.
“He murdered three innocent children. His place is behind bars, not back in society,” she says.
The organisation called on the Department of Correctional Services and the justice system at large to firmly reject this parole application to “ensure that justice is not further eroded”.
“Crimes against children cannot be met with leniency.
“The public deserves a system that protects the vulnerable, not one that re-victimises them.”
