Another night, another shooting

We had someone comment the other day that my statement about South Africans going to bed fearful every night was a paranoiac exaggeration. Really?

Perhaps we need our friend to tell us what type of abode he lives in because I have to say that living on a farm or smallholding is as good as writing your death warrant. Another day, another farmer dead.

- - -

A Leeuwfontein man was shot dead early on Sunday morning in front of his son when four armed men broke into his home on the smallholding near Kameeldrift at about 1:00am.

The men broke into the house and came across the man's 13-year-old son sleeping downstairs.

According to Constable Mabel Sibanda, the robbers asked the boy where his parents were and told him to call his father.

The child called his father who came downstairs. Sibanda said the man was shot and he died on the scene.

Sibanda said the men then tied up the mother and the two sons, the 13-year-old and another child aged about four years before ransacking the house.

They demanded to have the keys to the safe, where they took several firearms. They loaded these and a number of household appliances into the man's car.

Sibanda said the police rushed to the scene after they got a tip-off and they found the men loading the goods into the vehicle.

The men ran away, leaving the goods and the car on the scene. She said no arrests had been made and the police were investigating the incident. Sibanda could not give any details regarding the deceased and his family.

Specialist investigator into violent and economic crimes, Mike Bolhuis, who lives in the vicinity, said the victim was a Mr McDonald, 41.

Bolhuis said after killing the man and tying up the woman and the children, the robbers fled the scene in McDonald's vehicle.

According to him, the abandoned vehicle was later found by the police in Mamelodi.

Bolhuis said: "Crime in this area has been terrible for the past three weeks. There is nearly an attack every night.

"We find it difficult to work with the police. They should be less concerned about their image and more concerned about the people's safety."

Bolhuis said the police should keep the people informed about the attacks. He added that a few days ago there were three attacks in one night in the area.

A gang of robbers trying to sell goods they had stolen during a house robbery at a Kameeldrift smallholding were arrested by the police about two weeks ago.

The gang attacked a family in the early hours of the morning as they were sleeping. In another recent attack in the area, a man and his accomplice - believed to be out on bail for a series of house robberies - were arrested after four house robberies in the Kameeldrift area.

Those attacked by the gang included well known rose cultivator Ludwig Taschner, who was shot three times in his home, and hunter Jan Janse van Rensburg, who managed to fight off the gang from his Kameeldrift home by opening fire on them.