Thursday, March 22, 2012

Harrismith farmer Tjokkie Venter, 36, stabbed in face, beaten with steel bars by illegal occupants of farm owned by SA National Road Agency SANRAL

Description
Harrismith farmer Tjokkie Venter, 36, stabbed in face, beaten with steel bars by illegal occupants of State-owned farm:
------------------------------------
It was confirmed by HARRISMITH SAPS tel 058-6241000 Fax: 058-6221057 that five black males were arrested for the assault on local farmer:
-------------------------------------
2012-03-21 08:02 Harrismith – Local farmer Tjokkie Venter, 36, is in hospital after he was seriously assaulted: people stabbed him in the face and beat him with a steel-bar on March 20 2012 while he was busy demolishing a steel-structure on a farm which was bought up by the South African National Road Agency SANRAL. Mr Venter, who owns the farm Gegund, was doing a contract-job for SANRAL's newly-purchased farm Uitvlugt. Sanral purchased this valuable agricultural land for road-building purposes - however there are black squatters on the farm who refuse to budge and claim the farm belongs to them - not to the State. Local citizen-patrol member Piet Roetz said Venter was brutally assaulted by the illegal residents. SANRAL bought a number of large farms in the area to help in its expansion-plans for the N3 freeway between Johannesburg and Durban. The farm house and barns of the farm were already broken down and Venter was busy breaking down another steel-structure on the property when he was accosted. One of the farm-occupiers, the man's son and two other men were arrested for allegedly stabbing Mr Venter in the face and beating him over the head with steel pipes. Mr Venter's dad Albert was with him during the assault and immediately warned the local SAPS. SAPS spokesman Majang Skalkie confirmed that the police were on the scene very quickly and that they had arrested a group of males against whom charges of serious assault would be investigated. At the time of going to press yesterday, there was no report of the victim's condition in hospital. Ambulance services said he was unconscious when taken to hospital.

No comments:

Post a Comment