POLOKWANE – Baloyi was assaulted and ran over by a vehicle when he trespassed and took a shortcut through a farm on 18 May.
He sustained a broken leg and other injuries during the incident.
Baloyi was allegedly chased by a Land Cruiser with two male persons inside. The vehicle bumped him and allegedly ran over him twice. He sustained injuries and was then locked up in a cold room on the farm until the next day, when a police officer from the Westenburg Police Station freed him from the room.
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“I do not remember anything after they bumped me with the Land Cruiser until the next day when I woke up in the cold room when the policeman arrived in the afternoon,” Baloyi said, adding the policeman did not wear a uniform and was driving a white Amarok, the number plate of which he remembers partly.
Baloyi said the policeman, however, dropped him at the farm’s gate where he laid until he was assisted by one of the farmer’s neighbours, who found him alongside the road and called an ambulance.
The policeman in the Amarok passed him again on his way back after buying fodder, but at this stage the ambulance was picking him up to transport him to hospital.
He was taken to the hospital and his leg was found to be broken and was put in a cast. He also sustained injuries to his face and one of the bones of his arm was fractured but it was not put in a cast.
He was discharged from hospital the same day and he opened a case of attempted murder and kidnapping at the Westenburg Police Station.
He added the policeman who picked him up from the farm was with other officers and they visited him last Tuesday to hear his side of the story and what happened. The policemen also informed him that one person was apprehended and appeared in court in relation to the matter, but he was not called to testify.
Col Moatshe Ngoepe, Provincial Police Spokesperson, confirmed a case of attempted murder and kidnapping is being investigated by the Westenburg Police.
It is alleged that the complainant was walking at night between Bergnek and Zebediela and on his walk he found himself on a farm belonging to a 20-year-old, who chased him with a vehicle and ran him over twice.
“The victim was kidnapped and kept overnight. The next morning he managed to escape. A day after the incident, the 20-year-old farm owner was arrested and released on R2 000 bail. The case was postponed to 24 July,” Ngoepe explained.