'Cop' held for farm attack
2004-10-31 22:16
Johannesburg - Four men, one of them reportedly a policeman, were arrested in Heidelberg on Sunday after a farm attack in Frankfort, police reported.
East Rand spokesperson Zithini Dlamini said the men were driving in a Mercedes Benz with tinted windows and without registration number plates when they were arrested.
Police in the area had been asked to be on the lookout for the car which had been used in a farm attack in Frankfort, said Dlamini.
She said more than R40 000 in cash, a hunting rifle, two pistols, three pump-action rifles and a toy gun were found in the car.
Free State police spokesperson Christopher Mophiring told Sapa one of the men was a policeman based in Tokoza, Alberton.
He said the uniformed policeman told Riverside Farm owner Pieter Bothma he was investigating a rape.
He then drew a gun on Bothma and demanded to know where the safe was.
The man and his accomplices took the money and firearms, locked four Bothma family members and their domestic worker in the bathroom and fled.
No serious injuries were reported, although Bothma and his wife were assaulted during the incident.
Dlamini could not confirm that one of the attackers was an active-duty policeman.
The four men from Boipatong in Vereeniging - aged 28, 35, 38 and 39 - would appear in the Frankfort magistrate's court soon, she said.
- SAPA