“I will see you in four hours,” the 33-year-old JP Galardi told his wife of 13 years, Lelanie on Friday, 10 January. The next time she saw him was to say goodbye … for the last time.
“My husband had been working for his last employer for about three months. There were problems with his salary and he decided he needed to make a plan to look after us,” she said.
On that Friday night JP and a friend, Tiaan Terreblanche went out to look for scrap metal. They went to a nearby train station.
Photo: Supplied.
“They usually went at night because they knew the zama zamas [illegal miners] were active there during the day,” Lelanie explained.
According to Tiaan they were busy for about an hour and a half, and were fastening the scrap to their trolley when two zama zamas approached them.
“We saw them there but we believed that if we did not bother them, they would not bother us, as we had done in the past,” Tiaan said.
The two men asked JP for R200 for the scrap, and with JP being a negotiator, he told the men he did not have the money but would come back with it.
The next thing Tiaan heard was a shot. “From the moment they came to speak to us until they shot him was about 30 seconds,” explained Tiaan, who hid until he heard JP scream, “Help they shot me”. The bullet hit JP just above the hip bone.
Tiaan fetched his car and loaded JP into it. “While we were driving, he kept telling me, ‘help me brother, I am dying’. I told him he was not going to die,” a heart-broken Tiaan said.
He saw a police vehicle and asked them for help. They offered to escort the two to the hospital, but then Tiaan’s car ran out of petrol. The officers went to get petrol but they did not have the right container. When the officers returned they phoned an ambulance.
Tiaan managed to run back home to tell Lelanie what had happened, and she ran to where JP was. Unfortunately, JP did not make it.
“I kissed him one last time, and then said goodbye,” she said through her tears.
Lelanie said she knew that JP is now with the angels and the family members they have lost, and that brings her calm.
