"It was like hot water falling on me"

Little Danielle Esterhuizen didn't want to leave Riebeeck Lake. She told her father "It's nice here".

So her mother Anel wrapped her in her father's jacket to ward off the cold and held her on her lap while her husband Diederick took photos of their two-year-old son Andrique playing on the bonnet of their bakkie.

While cuddling her daughter, a (black) gunman, who was with three other (black) men, opened fire and killed the five-year-old, her mother testified in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday.

She took the stand to testify against the three alleged killers - Mpho David Ngomane, 32, Tsakane Jwaki Sithole, 26, and Thabang Joseph Jane, 25. A fourth suspect is still at large.

Anel said the family and a friend, Ferdinand Kleynhans, had gone to Riebeeck Lake in Randfontein on December 20 2006 to do some fishing.

"I noticed a white car coming into the lake area where we were sitting. The driver of the car switched his lights off and on. Later, the same car drove away from us.

"My husband came to us and said we should leave, but Danielle said 'No daddy, it's nice here', and we stayed.

"My husband was busy taking pictures of Andrique when I noticed four (black) men coming in our direction. Three of the (black) men appeared to be walking past us but the fourth one pulled out a gun and said: 'This is a robbery'. He then started to shoot at my husband.

"I was holding (Danielle's) head against my heart to protect her from the cold. I closed my eyes when the gunman started to shoot at my husband.

"Suddenly, I heard something falling before me, and when I opened my eyes, I saw the (black) gunman firing a shot in my direction," Anel testified, saying it felt as though somebody had opened a tap on her lap.

"It was like hot water falling on me. I then looked at my daughter; she was full of blood and I screamed."

The case continues.