Hundreds of mourners bid farewell to Jacques Pretorius on Friday, the boy who died in a sword attack at a Krugersdorp high school earlier this week.
”You will always wake up with a void in your heart, and always go to sleep with a void in your heart … but God will give you the strength to live with your grief,” Reverend Hein Delport told the Pretorius family.
The brown-and-gold casket, adorned with yellow flowers and a framed picture of the 16-year-old boy, stood at the front of the church. Sobs punctuated the service.
His mother, Adel Bekker, dressed in black and white, was among those who carried the casket at the end of the service.
Nic Diederichs Technical High School principal Mac Redelinghuys said Pretorius had been close to his heart.
”Jacques was his father’s right hand. You lost your right hand today, but you must know that your son is now sitting on God’s right hand,” Redelinghuys told the boy’s father, Gerhard.
Curious onlookers stood in the street outside the church, while several policemen kept an eye on proceedings.
The funeral programme contained a picture of a smiling Pretorius and photographs of him from an early age.
”Jacques, in the 16 years, seven months and three days that you as a son, brother, cousin and friend had been part of our lives, we experienced joy and grief. Jacques, you were taken from us so suddenly. It hurts very much, but we know that God is holding you safely in his arms,” the programme read.
Pretorius was killed on Monday when a fellow pupil, Morne Harmse (18), allegedly stabbed him with a sword and injured three others.
Harmse has been arrested on a charge of murder and three of attempted murder. — Sapa