A farmer has survived being shot 10 times.
- A Potchefstroom farmer has survived being shot 10 times during an attack on Monday.
- The man was confronted by three attackers after he heard his dogs barking and went out to investigate.
- The farmer is recovering in hospital.
A farmer from the Potchefstroom area survived a farm attack on Monday night. He was shot 10 times.
André Marais, 54, is currently in the intensive care unit of a local hospital after he was operated on shortly after the attack to repair a major artery that had been severed, said Colonel Adéle Myburgh, North West police spokesperson.
She said Marais was shot eight times in one leg and twice in the other.
Diana King, spokesperson of Mediclinic Potchefstroom, where Marais is being treated, said on Tuesday morning that he was in a stable condition.
The attack took place at around 18:00 on Marais’ farm in the Muiskraal area. Myburgh said Marais and his wife were in the main house. A cash shop is also situated on the farm.
The family’s 68-year-old gardener (name still unknown) was sitting outside his corrugated iron home about 100m from the main house when three men overpowered him.
“One had a firearm,” said Myburgh.
“They tied up the gardener and forced him into his house. The worker shouted and the dogs also barked.”
When he heard the dogs barking, Marais walked out of the house with his rifle and a knife to investigate and called out to the gardener.
At that point, the attackers emerged from the gardener’s home. One of them fired shots at Marais.
The robbers took Marais’ rifle and knife and fled. According to Myburgh, other farmers in the area heard the shots and immediately started mobilising themselves by going to Marais’ farm and closing roads in an attempt to apprehend the attackers.
“Some of the farmers saw a 34-year-old man walking along a road in the area. They asked him what he was doing there. It turned out that he was also a victim of presumably the same three attackers.”
The man said he had withdrawn money at a shopping centre in Carletonville earlier on Monday. After withdrawing the money, a woman approached him and asked for help with something.
“She apparently said she wanted to show him something on her cellphone, but then she opened her handbag and showed him a pistol,” said Myburgh.
“She threatened to shoot him if he did not walk with her. The woman went to a vehicle with three male occupants.”
No one has been arrested as yet. Police were investigating cases of attempted murder and armed robbery. Anyone with information can call Sergeant Jarus Mantsho, the investigating officer, on 060 612 3271, or the Klerkskraal police station on 018 765 1039/1060.
Read the original article in Afrikaans here.
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