MBOMBELA – An elderly women, who has been widowed twice, thought she had found a partner again at the ripe age of 75 years. Her dreams were shattered when the man she had moved in with shot her twice.
They met through a magazine’s dating service.
Mr Rudlof Joubert (85) was charged with attempted murder after the alleged incident on Saturday, March 5. He has been released on bail of R5 000 and has to appear in court again on May 27.
Ms Bets Ottë showed Lowvelder the wounds on her shoulders inflicted by the bullets that hit her, as she relayed her horrific experience.

On Wednesday Ottë said this was the first time she could ready to speak about the incident without bursting out in tears. In 2014 she saw Joubert’s profile under ‘Pasmaats’ in Huisgenoot. She started writing to him. She lived in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal and relocated to Mbombela to be with him.
“I was tired of being alone,” Ottë explained.
Her first husband was killed during the riots in Soweto in the 1970s and the second died from natural causes in 2012.
Ottë and Joubert had been living together for about a year when she went to Cape Town to visit friends at the end of last year. She returned in early January and asked a friend to pick her up from the shuttle service’s drop-off point.
“That was when the first cracks showed,” she said. “Joubert wasn’t happy with the fact that I didn’t ask him to come fetch me.”
Ottë was also shocked to discover that Joubert had brought another woman home on occasions while she was away.
She decided to rather move out. She packed her belongings and went to stay with a cousin in the Mbombela area.
On February 16, Joubert allegedly told Ottë that she was not supposed to have taken the items she had packed and threatened to shoot her.
“I developed an intense fear,” Ottë added.
She went to the police and obtained a protection order against Joubert. On the day of the incident, Ottë returned to her and Joubert’s house as she was still in the process of moving. She was in the kitchen cooking food.
She turned around and suddenly saw Joubert behind her, pointing what she thought, was his finger at her.
“My eyes took a while to focus and I later realised it was a firearm.” Joubert allegedly said, “It won’t hurt”, while pointing the gun straight at her head.
“He would have shot me in the forehead,” Ottë said.
Shots went off.
“I didn’t even hear them. I felt nothing, but saw blood streaming from two holes in my shoulder. I don’t know how it happened, but by the grace of God, he didn’t shoot me in the head.”

Ottë ran. “If that security gate was locked, I wouldn’t be here today,” she added.
She ran to the neighbours and then heard more shots being fired. She arrived at the next-door neighbour and heard someone say, “Aunty Bets has been shot”.
Joubert followed her to the neighbour’s house and apparently proceeded to fire more shots. The neighbour locked the door and a relative managed to overpower Joubert, relieve him of his firearm and tie his hands with cable ties.
The police were summoned to the scene.
Joubert was arrested and taken to Kiaat Hospital for evaluation.
Ottë was rushed to Mediclinic Nelspruit before the police arrived.
Ottë was discharged on March 8. The bullets didn’t hit any bones or vital organs.
“Although I didn’t hear the shots at first, my hearing was impaired for three days after the incident,” she recalled. “He was out to kill me, and I never thought that a man of that age will try and kill me.”
Thinking about their relationship, Ottë is of the opinion that Joubert had an obsession with her.
“He would lock himself in my room and lie on my bed,” she said.