Reward offered for Pretoria Road murder culprits

Du Plessis lived at 170 Pretoria Road, and was attacked and badly assaulted by unknown people, in his house, three weeks ago.

He died in hospital on March 25.

Speaking of her father’s brutal attack, daughter Ida du Plessis-Pretorius said the family is completely devastated by the murder.

“I can’t put words to it; the kind of people who did it tried to make him suffer and I don’t think they were just petty criminals,” she said.

She added that the wounds her father suffered were extensive and wicked.

He sustained a fractured skull bone, bleeding and swelling of the brain, and his heart sustained severe damage, as did other internal organs.

The injury to his brain, as well as the severity of the attack, resulted in function-loss of his right arm.

Following the attack, he was unable to see anyone, and was never able to talk again.

“When I went to see him in hospital his head was bruised and swollen to twice its size,” she said.

Du Plessis, who was off work on the day the incident occurred, was discovered by his son, Wynand (Jnr), when he returned home from work.

Benoni police spokesperson Lieut Nomsa Sekele said du Plessis was found lying unconscious on the floor and bleeding.

“He was tied up with a rope; there was blood on the walls and floor in the kitchen and the house had been ransacked,” she added.

The lieutenant said the safe was found open and an undisclosed amount of money had been taken from it.

She said a flat screen TV and music system were found wrapped in a duvet cover, in the passage.

The perpetrators also made off with du Plessis’s blue Proton bakkie, identity book and cellphone, and these have not been recovered.

Sekele said police are investigating a robbery and a murder case, which was changed from attempted murder following du Plessis’s death in hospital.

So far there are no suspects and Benoni CPF executive chairperson Reza Patel is calling on the community to contribute money to reward whoever comes forward with information that leads to the arrest of the perpetrators.

Patel has contributed R10 000 from his pocket to the fund and, on March 31, he told the City Times that the reward was already standing at R69 000.

CPF members across the board also made contributions.

“Anyone is welcome to make a contribution; with the reward in place, we believe we will be able to get valuable information,” said Patel.

He added that enough is enough with murders in Benoni, and that the reward strategy will be applied going forward, with the aim of encouraging people to divulge information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of perpetrators of various crimes.

“It will not be applied only to this specific case; we have taken a decision to start paying for information,” said Patel.