Another day, another farm attack
The police in Modimolle have launched a manhunt following a local farm attack.
The police in Modimolle have launched a manhunt following a local farm attack.
The incident on Friday 15 June, took place hardly a few days after the police had reported they were on the trail of three farm attack suspects in Vaalwater.
During the recent incident on the outskirts of Modimolle, the SAPS said in a statement that a couple in their seventies were sitting inside their vehicle, when four armed suspects emerged from the bushes.
“The intruders allegedly demanded money, and in the process the woman was shot while still sitting in the bakkie. The suspects fired shots at her husband but (he) was not hit,” the statement explained.
In a separate statement, Limpopo DA leader Jacques Smalle said the attack was on the farm Varkenskraal.
He said Dr Leslie van Niekerk was shot in the stomach, while her husband, Dr Herkie van Niekerk, and a farm worker, Abram Kethisha, were brutally assaulted.
The police said the suspects drove with the victims in their bakkie to the farmhouse, and upon arrival they demanded the keys to the safe.
“The perpetrators then fled the scene with (an) undisclosed amount of cash and firearms, using the victim’s bakkie,” the police said.
The police further said the injured victim was air-lifted to an unnamed hospital.
The police made an appeal to anyone with information that can lead to the arrest of the suspects to contact Warrant Officer Gawie Greew, on 083 661 7239 or the station at 014 718 7512, the
police emergency number 0860010111 or use the sms crime line 32211or contact the nearest police station.
Smalle said he would write to the MEC for Community Safety, Makoma Makhurupetje, to request a meeting to discuss the safety of rural communities.
“Limpopo rural communities — farmers as well as farmworkers — are increasingly at risk as the SAPS have limited personnel and resources, to prevent violent crime in secluded and vast rural areas,” Smalle added.
— The BEAT
