Following the story of the heroic mother who defended her family against zama zamas in West Village on Youth Day, another family has come forward to tell their story. Three days after the first incident, they too were robbed at gunpoint by zama zamas.
Also read: Zama zamas target West Village home: Mom fights back
Desire Pretorius told the News that the field across from them had become an issues because the illegal miners usually hide there. On Saturday, June 18 she and her husband Chris were clearing up tall grass in front of the houses. Later they were joined by some of their neighbours.
After approaching the municipality on numerous occasions and not getting the service they requested they decided to burn the grass to improve visibility and to make it safer for themselves. They subsequently sent a message on the community group requesting a meeting with all the neighbours on Sunday, June 19 at 10:00 to discuss a way forward with removing all the grass.
One of their neighbours is a community leader and would have chaired the meeting. On Sunday morning by 10:05 only a few people were waiting outside and Desire and her husband walked to the neighbour’s house to ask her to join them.
She explained that illegal miners had pulled the man living in the neighbours’ yard into the field on June 16 and wanted information about the neighbours – how many people lived on the premises and what valuables were inside. The man told them that there were no valuables inside the house as the family was poor and it would be useless to rob them. For this reason it was decided that it would be safer if he did not have a remote for the gate.
While Desire and Chris waited for their neighbour, the man came out to talk to them and said the neighbour was on her way. Just before the neighbour came outside, Chris checked his phone and saw it was already 10:08. Desire said they saw two zama zamas approaching them.
There was nothing unusual and they seemed very calm and relaxed while walking slowly towards us. Because my husband speaks isiZulu and knows some words in Sesotho, he often talks to them or greets them, so we were assuming that they were coming to ask us something.”
When they were about half a metre from Desire one of the men pulled out his gun and cocked it.
“You could hear the bullet in the gun.”
He held it to Desire’s face while the other man only said ‘phone’ to her husband. Reluctantly he handed it over.
“Then the guys looked us up and down for what felt like a good minute, but it was probably about five seconds. They slowly walked away past our house. They turned back once, looked at us again while still holding the gun, then walked off with the phone.”
A distraught Desire went inside with her husband and when he went outside five minutes later the police were already on scene. Chris gave them a detailed description of the two men, including that one had a gold tooth, and told them in which direction they walked.
After that the police left and the couple did not see them again. Later that afternoon the neighbour called them outside to tell them that the same two men had just walked past their house again and that they should be vigilant and careful.
We are fearing for our lives. We make sure we don’t get home after dark. My husband had to sharpen his axe and walks around with it constantly, that and pocket knives.”
They phone their neighbours and let them know when they are close to home.
“There needs to be so many eyes when you enter. People need to be aware of what is happening around us; it is just not safe with those people around.”
