Robbed singer 'prayed out loud'

2008-07-24 23:53

Jens Friis and Sanri van Wyk

Pretoria - "We prayed out loud," said Northern Cape singer Elizma Theron after she and two friends managed to survive a robbery on the N1 highway in Gauteng late on Wednesday night.

Theron will appear as Kriek on the kykNet series Villa Rosa next year.

Theron; Ampie du Preez, a singer and guitarist from the band 'n Man Soos Jan; and Sondag's entertainment journalist Yolanda Barnard, were on the N1 south near the Rigel Avenue off-ramp between midnight and 01:00 when they were held up by two armed men and robbed.

Villa Rosa's publicist, Gizela Arndt, said the three were on their way back from a performance by 'n Man Soos Jan in Pretoria.

The band performs at the News Café in Menlyn every Wednesday night.

Barnard was driving in her own car and Theron and Du Preez were together.

Attackers hid in the bushes

Arndt said Barnard, who had left Pretoria before the other two, got a flat tyre and phoned her friends to come and help her.

"They immediately drove to where she was. While Du Preez was changing the tyre, two armed men jumped out of the bushes," said Arndt.

Andrew James, marketing manager of Select Music in Johannesburg, said it was suspected the robbers had put something in the road to cause a flat tyre so that they could attack.

Arndt said that when the men jumped out from the bushes, Theron grabbed Barnard and they ran to the other side of the car.

The attackers ordered Du Preez to hand over everyone's belongings.

When one of the men realised Theron was looking at them, he pressed a firearm to her head.

The men kept asking for laptop computers and threatened to kill the three young people.

They did not have any laptop computers with them, but the men fled with two GPSs, two handbags and cellphones.

Theron, Barnard and Du Preez were not harmed. They drove together in one car to the nearest police station and raised the alarm.

Police accompanied them to Barnard's vehicle and took statements.

Theron said: "Yolanda and I prayed aloud the whole time. We are grateful. It is only by God's mercy that nothing happened to us."

- Beeld