Glenda Ruiters’ Uitsig home is as neat as a pin. The only sign that something is amiss is a hole in her lounge wall, caused by a bullet when multiple shots were fired in what locals call a “hit on a woman of God”.

The 57-year-old single mother died in the kitchen of her house when gunmen came knocking at her door on Sunday evening, shortly before 19:00.

She died at the scene of multiple gunshots to her head, Ruiters’ aunt told News24. She asked not to be named because she feared she would be targeted.

Church friends gathered at Ruiters’ home on Tuesday, dumbfounded that such a respected, well-known and kind woman had died such a gruesome death.

The aunt said Ruiters, her daughter and sleeping grandchild had been home alone on Sunday evening when the three armed men arrived.

“I had been visiting a relative when I got the call. I am 72 years old, but I ran as fast as I could to get here,” she recounted.

“The property was swarming with police, but I forced my way in. I found her lying in front of the kitchen cupboards, dead. All I could do was lie with her, my face with hers. I couldn’t understand how this had happened. I still can’t.”

Ruiters had grown up in Uitsig and lived in an extension of a house. Her children had not slept in their home since their mother’s murder.

Western Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut said the motive was unknown.

No arrest has been made.

Ruiters’ aunt denied rumours that Ruiters had been “taken out” because she was a witness to a crime.

“That woman was God-fearing. If she had seen something, she would have spoken out about it. She knew nothing,” Ruiters’ friend and fellow churchgoer agreed.

“She didn’t deserve to go like this. She was faithful. The Lord was always with her.”

Locals told News24 that gang violence erupted about a month ago and there were countless casualties – both gangsters and innocent bystanders.

“We are living in the end times. We need holy intervention to fix what is going on here. People are living in fear and the bullets are flying every day,” one woman told News24.

The brazenness of Ruiters’ murderers, who came knocking at her door, shook her aunt, she admitted as she started to weep in what used to be her relative’s haven.

“Are we no longer safe in our own homes? Why kill someone who prayed for everyone, probably even her own killers?”

(Source: News 24)