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'Please pray for my dad'
31/12/2007 11:27 - (SA)
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| Fanie Keyser with his wife Annelize and son JC. (Beeld) |
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Buks Viljoen, Beeld
Marloth Park - It is a wildlife paradise on the border of the Kruger National Park - but for the second time this month, the area was rocked by violence.
Fanie Keyser, 47, a representative of a pharmaceutical company in Pretoria and a part-time cattle farmer, was the second holidaymaker to be murdered here during the past month.
"Please pray for my father, he has been shot," Keyser's 13-year-old son JC told family member by telephone shortly after the shooting.
The Keyser family from Duniet Street, Elardus Park in Pretoria, arrived at their holiday home on Thursday. They would have returned to Pretoria on Sunday.
AK47 attack
Keyser was shot dead with an AK47 assault rifle on Saturday evening moments after he and his family had returned to their holiday home from a nearby restaurant.
Keyser, his wife, Annelize, 42, and JC stopped in front of the house upon arriving.
He was apparently very security conscious and always carried his .375 Magnum revolver with him.
While his wife and son waited in the car, he searched the house to ensure it was safe before calling them to come inside.
While he was locking the car, Annelize heard two shots. Her husband collapsed on the verandah.
She ran to the bedroom and closed the door, while JC hid under a bed elsewhere in the house.
"We are just looking for money and won't harm you," one of the attackers, who was dressed in khaki clothes, told Annelize in Afrikaans while she was holding the bedroom door closed.
The robber tried to force open the door. He put the barrel of the rifle inside the room and fired a shot. The bullet, apparently that of an AK47, was later found inside the room by members of the Underberg police dog unit.
JC managed to escape from the house and pushed a panic button which was still around his wounded father's neck.
The robbers, who stole a cellphone and Keyser's revolver, escaped. JC called for help on his own cellphone.
Keyser was taken to a doctor living nearby, but shortly afterwards passed away.
He was apparently shot through the heart.
The police later found two AK47 bullet casings on the scene.
The dog unit took casts of a shoe print, one of the few leads they have.
Keyser was a part-time stock farmer on a farm near Christiana in North West.
Erika du Toit, his sister-in-law, said the murder was a shock for the whole family.
"We earlier read about the murder of Rudi Harris. Many people warned Fanie not to go there."
"Nobody expected us to go through the same hell only three weeks later."
"Fanie, the youngest of four children, was a special person who lived for his family."
The house where Keyser was shot, is barely 400m from the holiday home where Harris, from Robertson in the Western Cape, was shot on December 1.
Seven suspects were arrested in connection with Harris's murder by the Mpumalanga police's tracking unit. They were still in custody.
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