They tied the family up and threatened them with firearms and knives in their home in Nieuwe Street.
According to the police spokesperson, WO Mpho Manyoba, the family was sleeping when the five armed men wearing balaclavas entered the house.
‘They removed the burglar bars on one of the windows to gain access to the house,’ she said.
According to Manyoba, one of the boys, a matric learner from Boys High, was studying for the exam he was supposed to be writing the next day.
‘At about 02:30, an hour or so after he had turned off his light to go to sleep, he lifted his head and realised someone was standing next to his bed, pointing a gun at him,’ she said. Another man was pointing a firearm at his sister. The robbers allegedly dragged the three sisters and their brother from their room and into another room, along with their mother, father and uncle.
‘They spoke Setswana to each other and demanded money and cell phones,’ Manyoba said.
She said the robbers also mocked the family, saying this is not Pakistan and they must go back to where they came from.
‘They then took the father to the bathroom and demanded money from him. Another one pushed the mother against the wall and threatened her while the rest searched the house.’
According to Manyoba, one of the suspects hit the matric boy in the chest.
‘He told the police he thought they were going to kill him and told his sister to face the floor,’ Manyoba said.
While nobody was injured, Manyoba says the robbers escaped with nine cell phones, three laptops, two iPods, a 52-inch plasma LCD television, school bags, jewellery and a silver Chevrolet Captiva SUV.
They also took the keys to the truck and R200 from the matric boy’s wallet and another R2 000 from his father’s wallet.
They also took their bank cards and demanded the pin codes. While the police were on the scene on Wednesday morning, they received a phone call from the bank saying there had been a withdrawal of R3 000 from one of the accounts and another of R1 000 from another.
‘The robbers instructed the family to delete all the applications on their cell phones and laptops before they took them. They also demanded the passwords to all the devices and the boxes they came in,’ Manyoba said.