Bees hold residents 'hostage'

2006-02-03 09:09

Lucia Swart

Johannesburg - The residents of a home and two cottages in Risidale, Johannesburg, are being held ransom - not by criminals, but by a vicious swarm of bees that threatens their lives.

The swarm of African bees, nested in the electrical substation next to the premises, has already killed the family's two dogs and sent the domestic to a doctor.

They now fear that one year-old Ameerah Roux could be the next victim.

Dave Jacobs and his friend, Louis Nel, could not go to work on Thursday because they were petrified of leaving the safety of the house due to the seething mass of bees next to the house.

"I've been complaining since November to City Power in an effort to get them to remove the bees but so far there was no reaction. Some of the bees have now also moved into the drain under my bath," said Jacobs.

Wally le Roux rents a cottage behind the house and she lives in fear of her daughter, Ameerah's, life.

"It was also impossible for me to go to work on Thursday as I didn't dare take her outside the door," said le Roux.

A beekeeper on Wednesday partly removed the nest under Jacobs' bath after his two dogs, a poodle and a rotweiler-cross, had been attacked and died because of the beestings.

"Keiser (the rotweiler) was running around the swimming pool like a mad thing, totally covered by bees and with foam around his mouth.

"He eventually collapsed here under that tree," said Stephan Kok, 24, who lives in another cottage on the property.

Worker stung 20 times

To Jacobs and Nel the dogs were like children. "But just suppose it was Ameerah?" said Jacobs.

His domestic, Martha Mokoena, ran after Keiser around the swimming pool and was stung 20 times.

"She simply kept running to Cresta, where le Roux works, to get help and was taken to a doctor who gave her an injection and medication," said Jacobs.

They live in even more fear of the bees after the death of an elderly woman in November last year when she was attacked and killed in Kempton Park by a swarm of bees from an electrical substation after her car had collided against it.

Jacques van Niekerk, beekeeper, who removed the swarm from under the bath, said he'd already approached City Power in November and provided them with advice and a plan on how to keep substations free from bees, but he was "still waiting to hear from them".

Sol Masolo, spokesperson for City Power, did not react to any of several messages left on his cellphone asking for comment.

- Beeld