Lotz killing – parents launch civil action

Professor Jan and his wife Juanita Lotz claim this amount for the pain and damage they have suffered due to their only daughter's death. Notice of this huge civil claim was served on Van der Vyver on Friday. It was exactly three years to the day since Lotz had been killed in her Stellenbosch flat. Van der Vyver had been found not guilty of the murder in November 2007. His legal bill came to about R9m, the family later said. The Lotz couple believes there is enough evidence for a civil claim to succeed on the balance of probabilities requirement in such an action. Lotz's parents each claim just over R4m. This includes R2m each for pain, suffering, shock, psychological damage and R2m each for the loss of enjoyment of life. They also claim R10 000 for Juanita's medical expenses, R30 000 for the professor's medical expenses and about R400 000 for their future medical expenses. Full report in Rapport (Afrikaans) Full report on the News24 site (English)

Lotz was allegedly was stabbed to death with a steak knife by a member of a tik gang after the student from Stellenbosch University found a group of men in her flat. A 21-year-old who apparently made the allegation in a statement is behind bars for other crimes, says a report in Die Burger. Daryl Els, of Christian Botha Investigators, said this witness, besides confessing to what he knew about her murder, had drawn a plan of Inge's flat. ‘He knew exactly where the couch was and where she (Lotz) had been lying. This clearly placed him at the flat.’ According to the witness' statement, a group of men had gained access to Lotz's flat while its security gate was open. They had a bunch of keys with them and could enter other flats, but chose hers because there was nobody there. When she arrived at the flat, entered it and locked the security gate behind her, she blocked their escape because they did not have a key for the gate. She then was murdered. Full report in Die Burger