Bus passenger hit in head by stray bullet

Two people are lucky to be alive after a stray bullet hit a Citybug bus on Monday afternoon.

52-year-old Zettie Botha was on board, travelling to Mbombela to visit her pregnant daughter.

“We are supposed to find out the baby’s gender on Thursday,” she told Lowvelder, sitting in the same bus in which she was hit in the head by a stray bullet.

The incident occurred in Ermelo at about 1pm.

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SAPS spokesperson Sgt Gerald Sedibe said a man was eating at McDonald’s with his family when he saw someone breaking into his vehicle.

“The suspect ran away as he approached. He jumped into a waiting car and shot at the man, who retaliated. Several shots were fired. As a result, a lady was hurt during the incident.”

Botha, who lives on a farm near Ladysmith, was travelling from Durban – a trip she makes regularly to visit her daughter, Beatrice Joubert.

On Monday the bus made its usual pit stop at the Engen service station across the road from the McDonald’s on Church Street.

The driver, Attie Kruger, said there were 16 passengers on the bus, so each basically had a row of seats to themselves.

The bus was still moving when the bullet hit. It narrowly missed another passenger who was sitting right next to the window where it entered.

Driver Attie Kruger gestures towards the spot where the stray bullet hit the bus.

“I was turning right and stepped on the brake. It made that passenger’s head fall forward slightly, and the bullet passed behind his neck at that moment.”

The bullet hit the panel above Botha’s window and ricocheted, grazing the right side of the back of her head.

Kruger initially thought one of the children on the bus had popped a balloon. Once he stopped and looked around, he saw the blood streaming down Botha’s neck.

“I was looking out the window, admiring the scenery,” she said, sitting on that same seat and showing Lowvelder the spot the bullet had ricocheted off.

“It felt as though I had been hit by a brick. I asked the man in front of me what happened. He didn’t know. I started looking around for what had fallen on my head and wondered who had put something in the storage above my head that fell off, when I saw the blood on my hand.

“I thought it was a scrape from whatever had fallen on me. Then someone said there was a shooting and then the blood started flowing,” said Botha. They later discovered the bullet under her seat.

Kruger immediately evacuated the passengers and phoned 10111.

“It is sad that nobody answered,” he said.

Carmen Savva, hospital manager of Mediclinic Nelspruit, was on the same bus. According to Kruger, she played a pivotal role. She helped organise the paramedics and kept Botha calm.

“I thought, ‘I am not ready to die. I have so many things I still need to do. And I want to meet my other grandchildren’.”

Botha managed to phone her husband and daughter-in-law, who were understandably upset. Kruger, in turn, talked to them on the phone, calming them down.

“She only cared about her granddaughter,” the driver laughed. This is the girl she calls Kardoesie, whom she looks after while her parents are at work. The police eventually arrived and took statements.

Citybug dispatched another bus from Mbombela to fetch the passengers as the company refused to let them continue with the vehicle which had been shot at.

Kruger and a passenger, Vanessa Bekker, stayed behind, and when the police had finished with the bus, visited Botha at Mediclinic Ermelo.

“She was my passenger, I felt responsible for her,” said Kruger.

Driver Attie Kruger and Zettie Botha sitting together in the Citybug bus

Botha said the bullet missed her skull but she suffered a deep flesh wound and received stitches.

Her husband arrived from Marble Hall where he works, but she insisted on going on to Mbombela.

Once she was discharged later that afternoon, Kruger drove them to Mbombela in the same bus. The shattered window’s glass was lost along the way.

Botha said Kruger saved two lives on Monday.

“These things happen for a reason,” Kruger said. “It was a wake-up call for somebody.”

Citybug wrote on their Facebook page that they thanked God no one was seriously injured during this random turn of events.

Joubert thanked them for their service. “Your driver was tops. He comforted me over the phone and kept me updated on their progress. I am glad none of the other passengers were injured. I will never use another bus service.”

Botha said her son soon started joking that she was safer on the farm.

“I’ll definitely use the bus again,” she added. “I am going back home with Citybug on Sunday!”

At the time of going to press, it was unclear if Kruger would be driving.

Sedibe said that they were investigating a case of attempted murder and one of theft out of a motor vehicle. No arrests have been made.

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