Johan Kotze (born 1961), dubbed the Modimolle Monster, is a notorious South African woman abuser who is currently serving two life sentences at the country's high security prison.
[2] After an 8-day long countrywide police hunt involving Interpol, the Hawks, the public and private security companies, Kotze was finally arrested after he surrendered at a friend's place in Limpopo's Drie Hekke town's Schoeman street on 12 January 2012.
Police circulated his photo to the public on 4 January 2012 while launching a national and international manhunt involving the Hawks and Interpol.
Kotze was nicknamed MacGyver by people while he lived in Northern Cape because of his "slippery character" - his ability to commit some of the most heinous acts in society but rarely took accountability for it, including the alleged murders of two old women in 1990 and 1993.
[5] Kotze bought shares in a farm near Jagersfontein in the Free State after leaving Prieska following the death of his adoptive father.
Disagreements caused the deal to end in drama when a high court ordered that Kotze return 366 sheep to the farm-owners.
Kotze had got married altleast five times in his life, including with one woman in Bloemfontein named Sarita Venter, whom he met in 2008 and who ended up committing suicide in November 2010 because of emotional abuse.
Three black men, Andries Sithole, Pieta Mohlake and Frans Mphaka, who were hiding in a cupboard, suddenly appeared in the room.
Van der Merwe owns the property where Kotze stayed and in which Ina Bonette was tortured and raped, and her son killed.
Before his appointment, Kotze phoned Van der Merwe again and asked him to remove the palm trees in front of the house.
[11] In November 2012, Bonette told the Pretoria High Court that she was tied with ropes already fastened to the window bars and bed.
The three went to the Modimolle police station, and was then rushed to hospital soon after that, where she spent eight days undergoing operations across her body as well as being placed on anti-HIV medication.
[16] Johan Kotze was arrested on 12 January 2012 at the house of his friend Dirk van der Merwe in Drie Hekke's Schoeman street.
After being on the run for eight days, the bruised, exhausted and bleeding Kotze finally made his way to the house of Van der Merwe to seek "help".
Van der Merwe was a member of an armed neighborhood watch group that worked with police in hunting Kotze and his cellphone was radioed to the cops.
The night before, Tuesday 11 January 2012, Kotze had crashed his white Toyota Fortuner after being spotted by members of the public trying to buy food at Modimolle's Duggans Supermarket and Bakery.
Community members began chasing him but the dark night and violent storm made it impossible for them to find him as he galloped through the bush, hurting himself.
They seized the car and in it found blankets, clothes, newspaper clippings of articles of himself being wanted, money in cash and a small gas stove he apparently used for cooking.
Just closer from the scene of the crash, police found Kotze's hideout with broken tree branches, empty water bottles, leftovers of food, discarded pieces of toilet papers and supermarket plastics.
[20] Johan Kotze took the stand at the Pretoria High Court in April 2013 and testified that he caught his wife Ina Bonette cheating.
Kotze said he obtained a protection order against Bonnette after their second split, but on 19 November 2010, just a month after they got married, he went back to Bonette to ask for forgiveness.
Spannenberg said this worsened during an argument on 3 January 2012 when Bonette put a vibrator on Kotze's table and disrespectfully told him to use it on his next wife.
Spannenberg interviewed and observed him for about 4 hours at the Kgosi Mampuru II Maximum Security Prison[24] However, another psychologist, Cobus Coetzee, who was called by Prosecutor Retha Meintjes on behalf of the state testified that Kotze did not suffer from any mental disorder and should account for Bonette's torture and rape as well as Conrad's murder.
Coetzee formed part of a team of three psychologists who observed Kotze at the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital in Pretoria for two months.
Van der Merwe also testified about an incident over the festive period of 2011 when Kotze took another woman called Lizette on a holiday trip with him.
[27] Another psychological expert, Professor Dap Louw from the University of the Free State told Mail and Guardian's journalist Faranaaz Parker that Kotze fit the profile of a “five-star, violent and sadistic psychopath” and that his life was “characterised by manipulation” of others.
Another expert, Professor Christiaan Bezuidenhout from the University of Pretoria's criminology department, said people like Kotze have no place in society, they deserve to be locked for life because they will repeat the crime.
Bezuidenhout differed with Kotze's lawyer Piet Greyling who argued in court that his client should not be held accountable for the crime as he had psychological problems.
She committed suicide in November 2010 after Kotze left her in emotional and financial problems to go marry Ina Bonette in October 2010.