Farmer shot in the head

2007-01-19 15:54

Pretoria - Groblersdal farmer John Prins was shot dead by two robbers on Friday morning.

Police said Prins and his wife were laving their house to look for their dogs when the gunmen shot him in the head.

They tied up his wife, ransacked the house and fled in the couple's vehicle. It was later recovered.

The murder comes just a week after another farmer in the area 78-year-old Sarel Breedt was shot dead.

Breedt and his wife Ina, 77, were attacked while having lunch outside their farmhouse in Honingsdraai, near Roossenekal, on January 11.

Their assailants tied Mrs Breedt's hands and feet and left her in the kitchen while they dragged her husband to the bathroom where they tied him to a chair and shot him in the head.

Breedt's burnt-out bakkie was found 60 kilometres away, at Sekhukhune, on Sunday.

An 18-year-old was arrested shortly after the murder and a 15-year-old was arrested on Saturday when blood spatters were found on his clothes after he was arrested while breaking into another house.

Both are to appear in the Middelburg magistrate's court on Monday. A third robber is still sought.

Agri SA said it was increasingly concerned and upset at such attacks even though the government denied there was a crime problem in the country.

"Since 1991 there were more than 9 600 attacks on farms during which 1 560 people including farmers, farm workers and their families were murdered," it said in a statement.

"There is a need in the farming community that this problem be admitted in the highest sphere of government and be tackled determinedly." AgriSA said.

- SAPA