A woman who was held hostage by her police officer son-in-law in a night of terror that ended with him shooting her daughter before turning the gun on himself, has won the first leg in a civil battle against the police minister.

“Maybe we pray too little, but the world wasn’t like this when I was growing up,” said the Humansdorp woman, still too traumatised to celebrate the major victory despite having fought the system on behalf of her three grandchildren – orphaned by the murder-suicide – for the past six years...