Wake up, Daddy, Wake up!
2003-02-24 22:21
Vera Schoeman
Port Elizabeth - "Wake up, Daddy. Please wake up!" This was the plea of Bianca van Rhyn, 3, while her father was lying on her lap, bleeding to death.
By the time her mother, Annemarie, managed to drive to a filling station in Bluewater Bay, the little girl was hysterical and her beach clothes were drenched in blood.
On Monday, Van Rhyn told how five men attacked her family and killed her husband, Pieter, a construction foreman at Concor Technicrete, on Saturday night. The men made off with a mere R6 in change and jewellery.
Van Rhyn said she, her husband and daughter went to the beach late on Saturday afternoon. They walked to the beach and Bianca was playing in the water when her husband noticed a man at their bakkie.
He ran to the bakkie and Annemarie followed with the child in her arms. They jumped into the car and locked the doors, but Pieter couldn't release the gearlock. Bianca started screaming hysterically. Four more men emerged from the bush and started smashing the windows with stones.
Her husband managed to start the car and reverse, but the five men followed and shot him twice through the window.
"They grabbed about R6 in change from the dash and then pulled my rings and other jewellery from me. One ring was stuck and one of the robbers said he felt like cutting my finger off to get it." She pulled the ring from her finger with her teeth.
Moments later, they saw the lights of an approaching car and the robbers ran away. She ran over to the driver's side and tried to move her dying husband.
Too heavy
But he was too heavy and she had to crawl partly under him to drive away. "He was lying over Bianca and became blue around the mouth and nose. She put her hands on his legs and shook him, pleading with him to wake up. I told her to hang on, that God would get us there."
The family moved to the Eastern Cape from Fochville three months ago and explored a different section of the area every Sunday. "Pieter was so excited to live near the sea and he loved the scenic environment.
"Nobody warned us that some areas were not safe. If that had happened, my husband could still be alive today," she said.
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