Heini Witthoft’s life is hanging in the balance and his wife, Kitta, has been driven by fear out of the home the couple has shared in Primrose since 1963.
Kitta (73) approached the GCN, as she now feels strong enough to speak out about the horror ordeal the couple suffered at the hands of two thugs, on March 14, and which has led to their current situation.
Kitta said that the day had started like any other.
She was dressed and waiting while Heini (78), who is blind, went outside to open up the side gate before she went to get the car out, as was their usual routine.
“I decided to go and look for Heini and, as I got to the back door, I saw him pulling closed the security door on the stoep,” Kitta said.
“All of a sudden two young men jumped on him and starting beating him with an iron pipe on his head.
“He was screaming and they dragged him across the stoep to the small bathroom we have at the side of the stoep.
“There, I found out later, they bound his feet and hands and used a rope to secure a towel in his mouth, so his screams would not be heard.”
One of the men stayed with Heini and the other went for Kitta.
“He wrapped a towel around my throat and started beating me,” she said.
“He then took my meat knife out of the kitchen drawer and cut the cord off the toaster, which he used to tie my hands.”
The thug took Kitta’s handbag and helped himself to one of the bank cards.
He then took her to the bedroom and made her lie down on the carpet.
“At that stage the other man came in and demanded the car keys, the safe key, the pin number for my bank card and the remote for the electric gate,” Kitta said.
“He said he would rape me and kill me.”
The second man then cut the cord on the hairdryer, which was still plugged in (Kitta wished he had been electrocuted), and used this to tie her feet.
“He didn’t believe me when I told him we don’t have a safe, but I told him to go and look in all the rooms and he would see for himself,” Kitta said.
The men ransacked the house, taking cash from Kitta’s purse and Heini’s wallet, and keys, jewellery, a cellphone, the computer system and other items.
“They even took a suitcase to pack everything in,” Kitta said.
“I want people to know that even with all our security measures in place, everything failed us that day.
“If they want to get in they will.”
Kitta told the thugs to just take everything and leave.
“I was lying there on the floor, thinking I was going to die, and then I heard the car starting up,” she said.
“I started rubbing my feet together until the cord binding them came loose, and I got up and ran to the outside bathroom to look for Heini.
“When I walked into the bathroom, all I saw was blood.
“His teeth were lying on one side of the bathroom and I thought he was dead.”
She ran around the front of the house and saw keys scattered all over the grass.
The car was also still there, and she is not sure why they didn’t take it.
“They did still have our gate remote as they had closed the gate behind them,” she said.
“I shouted and shouted for help and three of my neighbours heeded my calls and came to assist.”
Kitta then remembered that there was another gate remote in the pantry and she went to find it.
“I was able to open the gate and one of the neighbour’s cut my bonds and others called the paramedics and the police.
“I went to the bathroom and cut Heini’s bonds,” she said.
Paramedics arrived on scene and assisted the couple, and Heini was immediately transported to hospital in a critical condition.
Kitta followed in another ambulance, a while later, after she had spoken to the Primrose police.
“The paramedics were wonderful,” she said.
She was treated at the Union Hospital, for multiple bruises and abrasions caused by the beating and the cords used to tie her.
Heini, however, suffered severe head wounds, was covered in bruises and his ear and arm had been cut with a knife.
“He cannot speak or remember anything, and we live from hour to hour,” Kitta said.
“I still hope and pray that he will get the full use of his mind back and that he will still be able to enjoy life a little.”
She wants people to know what is really going on in the country.
“You always think that things like this happen to someone else, but the reality is they can happen to you,” she said.
“It is heartbreaking to think about this, as they must have known Heini was blind – I am sure they had been watching us for a while before the attack.
“We are two old people – what could we have done to them? They are barbaric.
“I will now never return to my home, and this is where Heini wanted us to see out our days.”
Kitta added that people will see this as just another attack – but she wants the government to start taking notice of these attacks and doing something about the crime in South Africa.
