“I was picking up the kids from Krugersdorp, to have them with me for the long weekend, when this happened,” he said.
“We were travelling on the highway just past The Glen Shopping Centre when I suddenly heard a loud sound and asked my daughter, in the back seat, if she was fine.”
11-year old Eden told her father she was fine and when he turned to ask his son, Caden, who was sitting in the front seat if he was injured, he realised what had happened.
“He was slumped and I saw a hole in his head and then he started bleeding profusely,” Slabbert said.
The father tried to stop the bleeding by holding his little boy’s head while rushing to the nearest hospital.
“I knew I had to stop the bleeding and, while making my way to the nearest hospital, I noticed an ambulance in the fast lane and made my way to them to alert them that we needed assistance,” he added.
The ambulance stopped and the paramedics immediately attended to the boy, who was then taken to hospital where he has been in an induced coma.
“The doctor told me that Caden had suffered a skull fracture and huge head trauma and, although they wanted to attempt to wake him from the coma on Sunday (May 4), he said he still would not be able to breathe without assistance and so he is still in the coma,” Slabbert said.
Eden has been at her father and brother’s side since the incident.
According to her father, she asked to be brought to the hospital to be near her brother.
“She became quite withdrawn after the incident and she went home to her mom, but asked if she could join me in hospital to be near her brother; she is talking a lot more, but will need counselling to get through this,” said Slabbert.
A Boksburg man, Darrell Badenhorst and his girlfriend, Marionette Schwab, were also victims of this horrific act.
According to Slabbert, the car in which the couple was travelling also had a brick thrown at it.
“Badenhorst also heard a bang and when he reversed his car towards the man who had thrown the brick, the man did not run away, instead he looked him square in the eye,” explained Slabbert.
Badenhorst then turned to his girlfriend and realised that she had been hit and was also bleeding.
He then attended to her and stopped at the scene where little Caden was being attended to.
Schwab is reported to be a stable condition, in the Netcare Union Hospital, Alberton.
“The people who did this may not have had the intention to steal, but they did it with the intention to harm; it’s unfortunate that the police have, to date, not contacted us to take statements,” concluded Slabbert.
The family have not had the time to open a case at the police station.
