He might have grabbed headlines on the field, but ever since he passed away Joost van der Westuizen has had his name splashed across the news.

Much of that stems from those recorded ‘calls’ between Joost and Amor Vittone (HERE and HERE), and now a book written by brother Pieter van der Westhuizen has once again stoked up controversy.

Titled In die skadu van ’n legende (In the shadow of a legend), it carries details of Joost having elevated levels of organophosphates.

Below from News24:

…Pieter writes about his role as carer for his brother, as well as how the Van der Westhuizen family is coping with the loss of their brother and son. Joost lost his battle with motor neuron disease (MND) in February. He was 45 years old.

In one of the extracts Pieter [with Joost below] writes that at one point during his illness it seemed as if Joost was being poisoned. They had to rush him to hospital on two occasions. Pieter placed the incidents in context by saying that the “poisoning” had happened during a time that Joost was so desperate to fight for his life that he’d been trying all kinds of “cures”.

Large quantities of organophosphates – toxic substances found in, amongst other things, insecticides – had been found in Joost’s bloodstream. Joost hadn’t wanted to report it to authorities and Pieter writes in the book that as a result, the family had never found closure on the matter.

More info from another News24 story published last week:

Joost decided not to contact police after he was allegedly poisoned…

Odette Schwegler, spokesperson for the Van der Westhuizen family, said on Friday that Joost was admitted to ICU twice in 2014 because he showed symptoms of organophosphate poisoning…

When asked why they never contacted police, the Van der Westhuizens said via Schwegler that Joost did not want to pursue the matter.

Pieter’s book has drawn such a strong reaction across social media that Christian bookshop chain CUM Books have decided to cancel their order.

Not to be deterred, Pieter turned to prayer:

“If I can touch one person’s life with Joost’s story, I’ll be content. Even if the book is sold at a corner café, that’s fine by me. I prayed on the matter and asked the Lord that if I could only touch one person’s life with the book, I would’ve reached my goal. It doesn’t matter to me how the person gets a hold of the book.”

Maybe he should give it away for free then?

Still wouldn’t read it.

[sources:news24&news24]