The past week several incidents of robbery occurred with a firearm in eMalahleni.
As of March 2015 there were 1.8 million licensed civilian gun owners in South Africa, which means that civilian gun owners make up just 3.4% of South Africa’s population.
In other words, out of a group of 100 people, 3 own a gun.
But it’s not usually the legal gun owners causing the problems.
On June 16, at approximately 02:00 in the morning, Mr Joseph Koketso was on his way home from the tavern, ready to sleep the following day away.
“My friends and I were out because Monday is also a holiday, so it was a long weekend and none of us were working the next day,” Koketso explained, “I walked alone because it’s a short distance from the tavern to my home.”
Koketso was nearly home, when suddenly he was literally tackled to the ground by two unknown men.
“I hit the ground hard, but didn’t immediately realise what was happening,” Koketso recounted, “you go into kind of a panic.”
The two unknown men took Koketso’s cellphone, and nothing else, firing off a shot at him as they fled the scene.
“Luckily they missed me,” Koketso chuckled.
On June 15 at approximately 09:00, Mr Kleinboy Mphuthi was robbed of R60 000 at gun point.
“I withdrew R60 000 from First National Bank in Highveld Mall to pay my workers who do not have bank accounts. The teller kept me busy for quite a while, telling me that I needed to be issued a new card because my daily limit had been reached, and so on. Eventually I managed to leave the bank with my R60 000 carefully concealed,” explained Maputhi, “I got into my car, but soon realised that I was being followed by a silver Audi A6. I stopped at the robot next to Fruit n Veg in Mandela Street… That is when a man jumped out of the Audi with a revolver. He immediately pointed it at me and demanded that I give him the cash. He took the R60 000, as well as my car. I had to give it to him – at that point all I was thinking about was my safety. When someone pulls out a gun, they’re not just doing it to rob, they’re doing it to destroy.”
Maputhi’s car was recovered, still in eMalahleni, shortly thereafter.
On June 14, Msizi Mogoeng was walking to work at approximately 06:30 when a red Toyota pulled up alongside him.
He walked faster and faster, but couldn’t lose the car.
Eventually the three men inside of the vehicle pulled Mogoeng in, and drove him to a house that was unknown to him.
They took his cellphone and wallet, leaving him inside of the house that was situated in the Central Business District (CBD).
Mogoeng managed to escape by crawling through a window which they wasn’t able to latch shut.
It is believed that the three men who kidnapped and robbed Mogoeng were Nigerians.
On June 13, a woman parked her car outside of a filling station in Klipfontein’s convenience store.
As she was returning to her car, two strange men approached her and inconspicuously showed her their pistols.
“They both had guns, but only one of the men took his gun out entirely. They demanded my cellphone, which I gave to them, and then wanted to look through my car. I let them. People were just walking by but I was scared to try to alert someone to what was happening because I didn’t want someone to get shot,” the woman elaborated.
On June 11, Ben Fleur had its own incident of gun violence when a courier delivery man stopped at a home in Peridot Avenue.
He didn’t even have a chance to ring the home’s doorbell to let the occupants know he was outside before he was approached by two strange men who jumped into his bakkie and demanded that he drive.
Before the end of the street, the two men told the courier to pull over – to which he complied.
Still being held at gunpoint, the courier watched as the strange men loaded some of his parcels onto a silver-grey GWM bakkie, before speeding off.
At the time of going to print, none of the criminals in the aforementioned reports had been apprehended or charged.
Members of the public with information pertaining to any of these crimes are urged to contact Witbank SAPS on 013 655 5052.
