Robber killed with cricket bat

2002-12-20 06:36

Liela Magnus and Lieze du Preez

Pretoria - A robber died during a bloody fight in which a 16-year-old boy armed with a cricket bat and a man armed with a spade defended the lives of women and children against three attackers armed with knives and crowbars.

Ernest Moeketsi (33), one of the attackers, died of his injuries in the kitchen on the farm Kareepoort near Brits in North West.

Willem Harmse (41), who is being treated for multiple injuries in the Ga-Rankuwa hospital outside Pretoria, said the house was a "bloodbath".

Harmse has several cuts to his head and hands. Three fingers on his right hand and two fingers on his left hand were crushed in the fight.

"I was saved by God's grace and that 16-year-old boy," he said.

Harmse and his family are temporarily living with his brother-in-law Willem Lombard and his family on the farm. Lombard was not at home at the time of the attack.

Lombard's wife Rosemary (38) is in stable condition in Brits Provincial Hospital, where she is being treated for injuries to her head.

Harmse's wife Selma (40) and their children Chantelle (4) and Charlene (18), and the 16-year-old boy were treated for cuts and bruises.

Willie Lombard (10) and his sisters Jessica (14) and Cynthia (15) were treated for shock.

Knives, crowbars

Harmse said the attackers, armed with knives and crowbars, tied up two workers. They forced one of them to accompany them to the house, where they gained entrance by breaking the window to Mrs Lombard's bedroom.

Rosemary Lombard put up a struggle when the men shook her. They went to the room next door where Tollie Lombard, her uncle, was sleeping.

They overpowered him and took money and the keys to the safe from him.

Harmse said: "Oom Tollie defended himself with a pillow and a piece of tin. The noise woke up the rest of us."

The attackers took on Harmse and the 16-year-old boy in the lounge. The boy may not be identified.

Bar stools

Harmse said: "We only had bar stools with which to defend ourselves."

One "hell of a fight" ensued, during which one of the attackers fetched spades from outside the kitchen door. With these, the attackers hit the bar stools from their hands, Harmse said.

The attackers flattened his wife Selene and hit his daughter Charlene with the back of a spade when she tried to protect her little sister.

Somewhere during the fight, Rosemary also received a blow to the head.

"I realised they were going for my family and decided to lure the attackers towards the corridor where there was less space."

Cricket bat

The boy slipped into a room to fetch a cricket bat, with which he hit Moeketsi.

Apparently Moeketsi dropped the spade. Harmse said he went berserk when he saw his wife lying on the floor and heard his child crying. "I thought I would go crazy if something happened to my family. I hit the man with a spade."

The boy "is very fond" of Harmse's wife and daughters, Harmse said. "His hands are not tied to his body either."

The other two attackers ran away.

Moeketsi was dead by the time police and an ambulance arrived.

The attack was the fourth in two months on the farm. The family's five dogs were recently poisoned.

Moeketsi was earlier released from the Losperfontein Prison outside Brits where he was doing time for housebreaking.

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- Beeld