Two more farm murders; many attacks this week

2009-03-11 Wessel “Boetie” Badenhorst, Delareyville farmer, executed

Mar 11 2009 Linda de Beer reports in Beeld. Wessel “Boetie” Badenhorst, a 55-year-old farmer of Delareyville, was found shot dead execution-style on March 10 with a single gunshot to the chest. He was killed in the family homestead where this Afrikaner Boer, described as ‘straight-forward, honest’, has lived all his life.

Police inspector Wilmarie van der Merwe says the killers went through considerable trouble to murder him, breaking down a door to get into the protected homestead. A 9mm handgun cartridge was found on the scene. His lifelong friend Johnny van Biljon says he lived alone on the farm. “My dad and his dad were friends from early childhood too. He was an honest, straightforward kind of guy. If you spoke rubbish, he didn’t hesitate to tell you so.’ No-one has been arrested. Nothing was stolen: a ‘stolen’ farm vehicle was found abandoned the next day. link http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/Home/0,,3-975_moreStories,00.htm

2009-03-09 Hendrik Petrus Riaan van der Walt, 44, artisan, executed, Nylstroom farm barbeque, Limpopo

Mar 9 2009 Marietie Louw-Carstens of Beeld newspaper reports from Nylstroom/Modimolle in Limpopo that 44-year-old Hendrik Petrus Riaan van der Walt, 44, was shot dead execution style by shots fired by a group of men who had been hiding in the nearby bush. He was an artisan and worked at Polokwane smelters.

He , his family and friends were having a birthday braai for his wife Wilma on Suikerfontein farm. Van der Walt lives in Pietersburg/Polokwane. Police capt. Malesela Mogale said the deadly shot was fired by a .308 hunting rifle which was found in the bushes near the crime. It was determined that this rifle was stolen three weeks earlier during an armed robbery at a Pietersburg home. The investigating police officers traced the gangs’ tracks the nearby Phagameng township. No-one was arrested. Nothing was robbed. Mogale’s telephone number is 082 565 8606 http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/Home/0,,3-975_moreStories,00.html

8,000 SA police firearms ‘are just missing, never returned, or stolen’…

March 13 2009 SAPA reports that ‘more than 2,500 police firearms’ went missing between April last year and February this year alone. This was confirmed by acting security Minister Nathi Mthethwa in response to a Democratic Alliance opposition party question in Parliament.

“The missing firearms include pistols, revolvers, rifles and shotguns. Only some 150 were recovered by February this year.” KwaZulu-Natal had the highest number of stolen police firearms – from the ninety reported stolen, some eighty were even stolen directly from police headquarters – and then there was the problem of 100 retired police officers, who still hadn’t returned their service weapons over the past three years. Altogether, he said, some 8,000 police firearms are ‘out in the community’ in this way, http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20090313070246770C735613

2003-03-12 Empoverished Ouma Viljoen, 86, beaten to death in cottage near Vryburg police station

Mar 12 2009 Reivilo, Vryburg. There was nothing to steal from 86-year-old  Suzie “Ouma” Viljoen, because she was terribly poor and lonely – and never heard a fly. Yet she was found murdered in her Reivilo, Vryburg home on March 11 2009. The humble cottage with its paint peeling from the walls, was located only two houses away from the police station.

Her friend Gerhard Smit said she was found beaten black and blue in her living room. Smit says the empoverished community has collected enough money for her funeral. No-one understands why “Ouma Viljoen” was murdered. Her cottage had no electricy and no water, and the pump to the borehole behind her house was stolen recently. Smit said that until he replaced the pump, she carried her water in buckets to her home. “She wouldn’t go to an old-age residence and we kept her supplied with meat and vegetables and helped look after her, because she’s lived her most of her life. One resident has offered a R5,000 ($500) reward for the tip-off which would lead to the arrest and conviction of her murderers. People can SMS information anonymously to South Africa (27) (0) 79 076 1717.
No-one has been arrested.http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2484582,00.html

2003-03-11 Pharmacist Rob Taylor, Edenvale, shot dead in his fifth robbery:

Mar 12 2009 Beeld journalist Daniel Maluleke reports that Edenvale pharmacist Rob Taylor, 53, was shot dead by a large gang of armed attackers in his pharmacy in Edenvale at the East Rand. This was the fifth time the pharmacist was faced with armed robbery gangs.
The gang stormed into the pharmacy at 13:00 when there were six customers inside, said employees Jessica Edgecomb and Anna Maria Joubert.

They forced Taylor at gunpoint to open the gun-safe, but when he told them the money was in a money box nearby, not in the safe, that he would give it to them, they first pistol whipped him across the jaw and then shot him dead execution style. Taylor opened the pharmacy 26 years ago and had 20 employees.He leaves his parents and a sister, Felicity. No-one has been arrested. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2484568,00.html

2003-03-11 Christine Clements, Atlantis pharmacist, shot by armed robbers, Cape Town

March 12 2009 By Natasha Prince of the Cape Argus reports. "They're attacking me. I've been shot. You need to come now!"  Those were the words that greeted John Clements on Wednesday when he answered a call from his wife, Christine, after she had been shot by robbers near Du Noon when she stopped to check her tyres on the N7 highway.

Robber gangs often throw tacks on the roadway to puncture tyres, and attack motorists when they stop to try and fix the punctures. Christine Clements, who was shot in the stomach, on Wednesday underwent surgery at Milnerton Medi-Clinic to remove the bullet from her torso. She was in a stable condition on Thursday morning. Her husband relayed the story of how their lives were turned upside down on Wednesday, all because his wife thought she might have a flat tyre. John Clements said his wife, a 48-year-old pharmacist in Atlantis,had pulled over to the side of the road because her car was pulling to the left. She told him she first drove a short distance past the Du Noon informal settlement to an area where several workers were standing on the roadside. She believed she would be safer if she stopped there. She said she then ran quickly around the vehicle, checking the tyres. She was approached by two men as she made the quick turn around her car. "She realised this could be a problem and quickly got back in the car," he said. But the robbers attacked her and then fired a single shot through the side window of the car. They snatched her cellphone, her pharmacy notebook and her cigarettes before fleeing the scene. Milnerton police inspector Daphne Dell said they were investigating charges of attempted murder and robbery. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20090312102502605C673241

 Murderers of Daniël Muller, (26-08-2006) sentenced to prison in Pretoria

Mar 13 2009 Sonja Carstens of Beeld newspaper reports that 26-year-old Moses Mkhawane of Soshanguve near Pretoria and Nicholas Ngwenya, 21, were sentenced to respectively 30 years and 11 years in prison for the execution-style murder of 22-year-old Afrikaner Daniël Muller on 26 August 2006 during an armed robbery in a Pretoria restaurant. Restaurant owner Victor Mulder and security guard, Alfred Chauke remained unharmed. Magistrate Pieter Nel did the sentencing. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2485246,00.html

2009-03-12 Bullet lodged in Louise Buitendag’s face: survives hijacking, Pretoria.

March 13 2009- Beeld journalist Corné van Zyl reports that Mrs Louise Buitendag, 43, a mother of four, was shot point-blank in the face but miraculously survived during a hijacking attempt at 22:00 in Roetondale, when she was returning from a business meeting. She was forced to stop at a red traffic light when her car windows were shattered with spark plugs – and she looked into the a gun-barrel just as two shots went off. The man holding the gun said nothing, just fired two shots, she said.

She accelerated to get away from her attacker, honking her horn to try and draw the attention of an oncoming car. “I could see these people didn’t understand so I turned on the interior light to let them see my bloodied face,’ she said. The car stopped and the motorists called the emergency services and police. Doctors found a bullet lodged inside her mouth lodged right next to her jaw-bone. Amazingly, it lodged there without breaking any teeth or bones and she’ll undergo surgery soon to have it removed. Police sergeant Lynette Erasmus, polisiewoordvoerder, said a man was arrested, found hiding in an outside toilet – and told police his two gang-mates had run away. is  Mrs Buitendag’s eldest son Karl said he was deeply grateful ‘to the Lord for saving her life. We need her so much.’  http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2485228,00.html

2009-03-12 Martha Smalberger, Shaun Coetzee, Michelle Benwett, shot, critical, Umbilo, KZN

March 13 2009 Dries Liebenberg of Beeld newspaper reports that Martha Smalberger, 72 and her neighbour Shaun Coetzee, 30, are in serious condition after they were shot at point-blank range at their front-doors in Umbilo at around 8pm by three armed men. 

Police inspector Michael Read said the old woman was ‘also badly assaulted with glass shards’ during the attack by the three men: the neighbour Shaun Coetzee was also gunned down when the old lady’s housekeeper raised the alarm. Nothing was robbed. And 90 minutes later, Mrs Michelle Benwett, 36, of nearby Waterfall, was also shot in the stomach, said police supt. Muzi Mngomezulu All three white people are in a critical condition in hospital. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2485229,00.html

2009-03-11 “Trusted Mozambiquan worker’  rapes Pretoria employer, 65

"We treated him as a trusted friend. Are you crazy? We have trusted you all this time. You stay at my house. And you raped my wife…’ shouted an irate 66-year-old Afrikaner man of Meyerspark, Pretoria during the arrest of a Mozambiquan man, while the black man was being arrested for the alleged rape of his wife. (Picture by Herman Verwey, Beeld newspaper).

The elderly couple may not be identified. Beeld journalist Fanie van Rooyen said the old man, his eyes streaming with tears, confronted the young arrested man while he was being loaded into the police van.

The couple had taken pity on the young refugee, helped him got ID documents and work papers, put him up in cottage behind the house, giving him odd jobs to do around the house, and paid him the going legal wage. He raped the Afrikaner woman on March 13 while the old man had already gone to work. The wife had caught the Mozambiquan rifling the gun-safe, so he tied her up and then raped her.  “We felt sorry for him, gave him a roof over his head, and this is what happens,’ the old man said. “We gave him a cellphone, had his shoes resoled, drove him to the Home Affairs department for his identity documents and work-papers, and yesterday, I still brought him a large supply of cigarettes he wanted.’

The man was arrested by the Meyers Park neighbourhood watch after she’d phoned her husband, saying the man had raped her. “I found her tied up and with her mouth taped up in our bed, totally beside herself, unable to say anything except his name. She was in shock and terrified.’ Police found two stolen 9mm handguns, jewellery and $400 in cash on him, as well as a supply of marijuana. Police captain Jan Sepato, confirmed that he was being held ‘pending investigation of alleged rape and robbery.’ He was expected for his first remand Pretoria magistrate’s court appearance on Monday. He still has to apply for bail before he will be asked to plead to any charges. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2485227,00.html

Gardener Lucky Khumalo who raped 72-year-old employer faces life sentence

March 13 2009 – Pietermaritzburg High Court judge Fikilo Mokgohloa is considering the sentence for Lucky Khumalo, 31 a gardener of Glencoe in KZN, who pleaded and was found guilty of raping his frail 72-year-old employer.  He should be jailed for life, state counsel Adele Janse van Vuuren said in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday. Khumalo admitted that he had raped his slightly-built victim, a woman who had trusted him implicitly; throwing her to the floor, throttling her and inflicting other injuries when she resisted. He attacked i February 200 – but only after she had paid him."After he was paid he did not go home but surprised his victim in her home."

The 72-year-old lived alone and had employed Khumalo for eight years. She required medical and trauma treatment after the attack. Janse van Vuuren said the woman had trusted him. The state councel said ‘the mitigating factors advanced by his counsel Ishy Khan; namely that he had worked since he was eight-years-old, passed matric, supported his mother, had no previous convictions and pleaded guilty, did not amount to substantial and compelling circumstances that allowed the court to pass a sentence other than the prescribed lifetime in prison’. Judge Fikile Mokgohloa will pass sentence on March 17.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2483000,00.html