'I've had enough'

2008-02-22 21:07

Cape Town - A fed-up crime victim plans to sue Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula for a "significant amount" in the Pretoria High Court in March.

"I've had enough. I'm a little bull terrier. I'm there to say that the government must do something," Byron Gerber said on Friday.

Gerber said he spent three months in intensive care in Wilgeheuwel Hospital after being shot twice in the arm, right lung, kidney and liver by robbers in a Johannesburg security complex in 2005.

His hospital bills amounted to R1.6m.

Gerber said the police were denying South Africans their constitutional right to safety and security and freedom from "all forms of violence".

"Many citizens including myself are being denied this right by being imprisoned in our own homes or on the streets due to criminal elements targeting innocent people in the most violent crime waves," he said.

A lot of people wrote petitions, "jump up and down", but do nothing about it, he said.

Gerber was critical of the police bungling in his case. Although the police took pictures of the crime scene at his home, his friends eventually found the bullet with which he was shot and took it to the Muldersdrift police. They lost it.

The inspector tasked with handling his case was sick and died during the investigation. It was never continued.

He said "nothing was done" after several calls were made on his cellphone which the robbers stole from him, using another sim card.

A court date would be set down early in March.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Safety and Security Trevor Bloem said he was not aware of the case.

"You do have these cases from time to time," he said.

- SAPA