Free State farm attacks just hours apart

2013-01-17 09:46

(File, Orlin Wagner, AP)

Bloemfontein - Only hours after the bodies of an elderly couple were found in Parys, a woman was assaulted with a knobkierie outside her farmhouse.

Police spokesperson Colonel Thandi Mbambo said the bodies of 75-year-old Ernst van Rooyen and his wife, Annetjie, 74, were found in a tuck shop they ran from a garage on the farm, Somerset.

Two men have been arrested for the elderly couple’s murders.

In the second attack, Malani Pitout, 48, was addressed by one of the suspects by her Sotho name, which showed that he knew her, reported Volksblad.

“They waited a long time. You could see the tracks were they had probably been waiting since the previous afternoon in a sheep pen.

“I think the burglar bars were sawn off long before so that they could get in. They probably thought there wouldn’t be anyone with me.  Usually I am alone,” said Pitout.

She heard the dogs barking at about 01:00 and when she went to investigate, found two strange men in her bathroom.

Her fiancé Diederick Reinecke told her to run while he tried to shut the door and she tried to run to her brother’s house nearby. But a robber who was outside hit her with a knobkierie over the head.

“I fell. He hit me some more and kicked me. He grabbed me by the collar of my pyjamas and dragged me, telling me in Sotho to come along.

“He told me: ‘Thula, Masabata, thula. That is my Sotho name, so he knew exactly who I am,” said Pitout.

She managed to break free and her brother, hearing her cries for help, fired a gunshot which sent the robbers running off.

She sustained bruises but was not seriously injured.

Her fiancé was also not seriously injured.

Police were investigating.

- News24