A newlywed farmworker is dead after being shot by heartless skelms just four days after his wedding during an attack on a farm in Philippi on Sunday.
Cops say foreman Niklaas Strydom, 31, was killed during a shootout at the farm, where he has worked for the past two years when 10 gunmen held up the owner and staff.
One of the robbers was shot dead and another two caught and arrested.
Acting Philippi Police Station commander, Colonel Dawood Laing, says shortly before 9 am, the 10 men arrived at a store on the vegetable farm, saying they wanted to do business with the owner.
“They were driving a white Toyota Avanza and a white VW Golf 5. The owner directed them to the woman who does the sales and that is when they took out the guns. All 10 were armed and one even had an AK47,” explains Laing.
HUNT: K9 Unit in search of the suspects
“They directed the owner to the safe and took thousands of rands. When they came out, they wanted to go into the farm owner’s home, but the dogs scared them off.
“They decided to lock the farm owner and staff in a cold storage unit, but his son walked in and the owner showed his son with his hand to go out.
“The son contacted the farm watch and police and, along with Metro Police and Law Enforcement, we all raced to the scene.”
Laing says as the gunmen fled, they opened fire on cops and farmers and one bullet hit the father of three in the back.
“Strydom was rushed to Groote Schuur Hospital, but died on the way,” adds the colonel.
WIPED OUT: The Golf 5 driver was shot and killed in Philippi
“The police and the farmers returned fire and the driver of the Golf was hit and died on the scene.
“At this stage, it is not clear whose bullet hit him, but tests will be done. There were three other men in the car who jumped out and ran into the farms.
“One of the men was wounded, but we were unable to find him and then two suspects, aged 33 and 35, were found with the help of a dog and arrested.
“All six men in the Avanza got away and the manhunt for them is still on. A police helicopter was brought in to find the wounded suspect and we have checked the hospitals but nothing.”
Widow Shirley Hartzenberg, 32, says the shooting has devastated the family and she is now left to raise her three children on her own.
“Niklaas is originally from Robertson and we have been together for 11 years,” she says.
“When I met him, my daughter Lucinda, 12, was just a baby and not his child, but he raised her as his own. We have two sons together, Kirsten, nine, and Fergeo, two. We just got married last week Wednesday and now he is dead and I don’t know how to go on.
“Fergeo is still in nappies and my children are now facing Christmas without their father. I can’t even describe how I feel.”
The two robbers will appear in the Athlone Magistrates’ Court this morning on murder and business robbery charges.
monique.duval@inl.co.za