WATCH: Heart-wrenching scenes at slain Yolandi Botes’ funeral

A crowdfunding campaign created to fund a private investigation into Botes' death had on Monday received donations of R50,000.


Family and friends paid an emotional farewell to Yolandi Botes over the weekend as over 100 bikers created a guard of honour for the slain woman.

Raw sobbing can be heard as the hearse drives past, following a small, intimate sermon.

Someone orders “helmets up” before dozens of white doves are released and the bikers in turn start revving their engines in salute.

The funeral in Brakpan on Saturday was also live streamed on Facebook, receiving thousands of views.

Botes disappeared on 26 April after getting off a flight at OR Tambo International Airport. She was last seen in Edenvale before disappearing.

However, the gruelling discovery of her dismembered foot was made by a father and son while fishing on the Vaal River on 4 May.

Details surrounding her disappearance and death are still sketchy and the family has hired investigator Mike Bolhuis to find out what really happened to Botes.

A final farewell for some

During the small church gathering, distraught family and friends gathered around the coffin to say their final goodbyes.

While the funeral will be the final farewell for many, the pastor said during the sermon that there was no finality for the family yet.

A BackaBuddy crowdfunding campaign was created to fund Bolhuis’ investigation and on Monday donations had topped R50,000.

In a message on Saturday, Botes’ sister Mariska Oosthuizen thanked the community for their support in remembering “Landi”.

However, Oosthuizen had some sharp words for some members of the the media in a post in Afrikaans on Facebook.

She said while promises were made that journalists wanted to write tributes to her late sister, it ended up being a “tribute with a dirty twist”.

‘She was not a sex worker’

“As far as I am concerned, my sister was an exotic dancer 16 years ago. She was no sex worker. I will not believe anything else until I see concrete proof.

“And, even if she was [a sex worker] she still did not deserve to be murdered.”

Oosthuizen added that her sister’s name was being dragged through the mud to stop Bolhuis’ investigation so Botes’ death could simply become a cold case.

She asked supporters of the Justice for Yolandi Facebook page to continue to pray that the party or parties guilty of her sister’s murder are caught.

She added that she hoped that the murderer’s conscience would haunt them every day so that they could not eat or sleep. Then, God would point them out and justice would be served.

The video below is courtesy of the Brakpan Herald. For a video of the funeral, visit the Justice for Yolandi Facebook page. 

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