2009/05/26
OLD Mutual actuary Fred van der Vyver – acquitted of the murder of his girlfriend, Stellenbosch University student Inge Lotz – plans to continue with a R46million claim against the Minister of Safety and Security for wrongful arrest.
Yesterday, it was announced that Lotz’s parents, prominent medical professor Jan Lotz and his wife Juanita, have abandoned their R8m lawsuit against Van der Vyver “for causing their daughter’s death”.
Reminiscent of the civil prosecution of the former US football player OJ Simpson, who was found not guilty of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in the 1990s, the Lotz couple wanted to establish Van der Vyver’ s guilt on a “balance of probabilities”, rather than “beyond reasonable doubt” as with a criminal case .
The counter claim, which Van der Vyver instituted last year against the Lotz couple, has also been dropped.
However, yesterday, East London tomato farmer Louis van der Vyver, Fred’s father, said the settlement of the lawsuit between the Lotz couple and his son did not affect the claim against the State for wrongful arrest.
“We anticipate that case to go to trial in August next year,” said Van der Vyver senior.
This is the latest development in a string of civil actions following Fred van der Vyver’s acquittal on charges of beating his girlfriend to death.
His acquittal prompted the Lotz couple to institute the civil suit against Van der Vyver. They claimed to have had new evidence.
However, in later correspondence, the Lotzes informed Van der Vyver through their lawyers that such material evidence did not, in fact, exist.
The statements about new evidence were later claimed by Brian Lowe, of Lowe & Petersen attorneys in Cape Town, on behalf of Van der Vyver, to be a facet of “a campaign which has been waged in the press” against his client.
Lowe said most of the statements had been made by the Lotzes’ spokesperson, Dani Cohen.
At that stage, Lowe reserved Van der Vyver’s rights against his late girlfriend’s parents and Cohen “in regard to the above defamatory statements and the damage that Mr Van der Vyver is suffering”.
In yesterday’s statement, issued by Van der Vyver and advocate Dup du Bruyn, SC, the Lotz couple agreed to pay Van der Vyver’s costs, including that of two advocates.
The statement also said that the Lotz couple distanced themselves from any allegations made against Van der Vyver in the media.
Both parties agreed not to make any further statements to the press. - By EDDIE BOTHA, Investigations Editor
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