Torture victim Ina Bonnette finds peace eight years on

MORE than eight years after the so-called Modimolle monster – Johan Kotze – and his three accomplices were sent to jail for life, Ina Bonnette has eventually found peace.

Kotze tortured, raped and humiliated his former wife, and murdered her son Conrad.

Her peace, she said, came through writing her book in Afrikaans – Ina, ’n Verhaal van Genade en Genesing (“A tale of mercy and healing”).

Her book, describing her ordeal at the hands of her then “monster” husband, was published earlier this month and is on the shelves of bookstores, as well as online.

Asked how she is doing these days, Bonnette responded: “It is going well with Ina.”

This petite woman had to undergo 20 operations to date to try to repair the damage “that man” has caused her, as she refers to Kotze.

Bonnette said the book took a long time to come to fruition, as she did not initially plan on writing anything. “But through my 20 operations and the time it took me to recover from each, I had four walls around me. Thoughts went through my head, that wouldn’t have been there, if it wasn’t for that man. I reached for pen and paper and started writing.”

Asked whether she would ever forgive him, Bonnette replied : “The Scriptures say I must forgive, but it’s a matter between me and God.”

Bonnette said she still lived in Modimolle where Kotze and his accomplices turned her life into a living nightmare. “I drive past the house daily on my way to work. It’s fine.”

Kotze, who had launched three failed attempts to appeal against his conviction, tried to reach out to Bonnette from prison in 2017.

“This was the first and last time I heard from him,” she said.

He wrote her a letter , asking her to reach out to him, so that they could make peace. Bonnette said he wrote that it was against his Christian values what he had done to her. “I never responded and I’ve never heard from him again.”

Bonnette said the book is a biography and how her life drastically changed at the hands of Kotze. “We stand before choices each day. I made the wrong choice by marrying that man. But my book brings the message that there’s always a better tomorrow.”

The book is Bonnette’s own encounter of the horror when she was attacked and her son murdered by Kotze and his three accomplices – Andries Sithole, Pieta Mohlane, and Frans Mphaka. Bonnette gave graphic details during the trial of how Kotze pushed nails into her breasts and pinched her with pliers, repeatedly telling her how much he loved her. He then instructed his co-accused to rape her, before he turned on her son. Bonnette had to listen to how her son was executed in the adjacent bedroom – with a single shot.

Her book, however, is her road to healing. It is available at R250 a copy.