Senior advocate deems attack on him ‘a hit’
A senior advocate at the Johannesburg bar narrowly escaped with his life after two men assaulted him while he spent the night at Klipspringer Lodge on the Uitkyk Road.
The advocate, Leon Halgryn, told Lowvelder that the attack was not a robbery, but a hit. “I am very lucky and very thankful to be alive,” said Halgryn.
“There were two men who attacked me. Their intention was not to rob me, but to kill me. This was a hit.”
Halgryn said all the windows of his vehicle had been shot out by the attackers during the attempted hit.
The revered advocate was in Mbombela for a court case and had been staying overnight at Klipspringer before travelling back to Johannesburg on Wednesday.
He phoned the lawyer who was briefing him in the case after the incident had occurred.
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However, Albert Gryvenstein, operations manager of Bossies Community Justice, said there are criminals targeting the Steiltes and Shandon areas at the moment.
“The descriptions that we get from witnesses make me think that it was the same two men,” he said. Gryvenstein believes their motive is to rob people.
Klipspringer Lodge manager Anton Strydom said he could not comment as the matter was under investigation and a very sensitive topic. Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brig Leonard Hlathi had not responded to queries at the time of going to press.
Halgryn was on his way back to Johannesburg when the newspaper called and said he would be able to relay the events later on Wednesday afternoon.
