WESTERN CAPE. — Susara Johanna de Villiers (71) has been sentenced by the Worcester Regional Court to 20 years imprisonment for the premeditated murder of her three grandchildren. Caleb (8), Gradwell (5) and Joshua (2) died on 20 November 2021 when the vehicle in which they were travelling with De Villiers veered off a mountain at the Bains Kloof Pass and landed in a river bed. De Villiers survived the crash.
Eric Ntabazalila, NPA spokesperson, said De Villiers was found guilty of all three murders. She was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on each charge, but the court ordered that the sentences be served concurrently. This means she must effectively serve 20 years imprisonment.
According to testimony in court, De Villiers had been looking after the children at her home on the day of the incident while their caregiver was attending a wedding. The children swam and played. She had them get into her vehicle in the late afternoon to take them back to their caregiver, allegedly. The children cried and pleaded to stay with her. She asked them to greet their grandfather and said no one would hurt them again.
Prosecutor Cornelius Prinsloo argued that De Villiers drove approximately 23 km towards the Bains Kloof Pass in the opposite direction from the children's home. She passed several traffic control points before driving through a gap in the barriers. The vehicle then veered down the mountainside. De Villiers was wearing a seatbelt, but the children were not restrained. All three died from multiple blunt force injuries.
De Villiers initially pleaded guilty in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act, but the prosecutor did not accept her claim that she was not fully responsible for her actions due to her mental state. The court therefore entered a not guilty plea on her behalf regarding that part of her explanation, while the remainder was accepted as formal admissions.
During her testimony in November 2025, De Villiers said it felt as though something in her had switched off and that she was not certain exactly when she had made the decision. She was referred for 30 days of psychiatric observation at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital, where she was found to be fit to stand trial, capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of her conduct and able to act accordingly. The panel found no evidence of psychosis. De Villiers did not dispute the findings.
The court also heard that the children had previously been removed from their parents' care due to neglect and substance abuse. They initially lived with De Villiers and her husband for approximately three months before being placed with a family member on their mother's side. Approximately a week before the accident, the children's mother and her partner were arrested on charges related to child neglect. In mitigation of sentence, De Villiers testified about her difficult childhood, poverty and three suicide attempts during her adolescence. She also spoke of a motor vehicle accident in January 2020 in which she and her stepdaughter were involved. Her stepdaughter later died from burns sustained in the accident. De Villiers said she subsequently suffered from depression and received limited treatment.
Prinsloo argued that these personal circumstances could not overshadow the seriousness of the three premeditated murders. The NPA praised the work of investigating officer Michael Pretorius and Prinsloo, saying the thorough investigation into De Villiers's plea explanation had strengthened the state's case.
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
