Farmer foils attack by muti-burning robbers

2012-10-08 09:14

Farmer Willem Cloete (Beeld)

Johannesburg - An Mpumalanga farmer has told how a farm attack on him and his pregnant wife was stopped after neighbours arrived to help him.

“It could have been three lives lost,” said Willem Cloete, 28, from the farm in Middelburg, reported Beeld.

Cloete and his wife Elsje, 28, who is 34 weeks pregnant, had been in bed on Friday night when they heard the dogs barking.

He saw a shadow move across the yard and smelled smoke from a fire the robbers had made outside the house.

“I got my firearm ready and let my neighbour know on my cellphone that they should come.”

A shootout ensued between neighbours who arrived in a bakkie and the suspected robbers.

One of the men was wounded and later gave himself up.

One of the neighbours was shot but not seriously injured.

Cloete said he believed muti had been burned on the farm.  

A police officer said Cloete’s claim that police only arrived after more than an hour would be investigated.

- News24