Couple’s ordeal after robbery

A farming couple from the area told their story of bravery and survival this week after a robbery on Sunday night.

Mr Gustav Janse van Rensburg and his wife, Gerda, visited their farm, Skilderkrans, in the Varkenslaagte area near Doornfontein at about 15:00. While they were feeding the sable antelope, Gustav quickly went to the farmhouse toilet. Suddenly, someone attacked him from behind and struck his head so hard that he lost consciousness.

He awoke to one of three robbers wearing balaclavas and gloves shoving a pistol into his eye, demanding money. The other thugs, also armed, tied Gustav and Gerda’s hands and feet up in separate places on the farm after assaulting both. They also took their wedding rings and cell phones.

“I could hear Gerda screaming that they were hurting her,” says Gustav.

He cooperated with the robbers, gave them the keys to his house in Fochville, and explained where the safe was. The thugs got into his white Nissan Navarra and drove off. On Monday, Gustav said he thought the thugs had taken Gerda with them and immediately tried to loosen the white nylon ropes around him.

“I started bumping against the shelf where I was lying because I hoped one of the glass bottles would fall off and I could use the broken glass to cut the ropes. Miraculously, a bolt cutter fell off instead and landed next to me,” says Gustav.

After he freed himself, he ran through the bushes towards the Deelkraal road. After having to dodge a neighbour’s charging bull, he eventually got to the road near Eskom’s Carmel substation. After several cars drove past Gustav, waving for help in the middle of the road, a VW Golf with four African men stopped to help him.

“I will forever be grateful to them. One even had to buy airtime so I could call for help,” says Gustav.

He immediately called a relative, who, in turn, notified the police and other role players that the robbers were on their way to the couple’s house in Fochville in their bakkie.

Authorities and numerous other helpers, like members of the CPF, raced to the home and, when they arrived, found the bakkie idling in the garage. Because Gustav thought the robbers might still be in the house with Gerda, he permitted the police to break a window to get in. The house was empty, however.

They suspect the robbers fled when the alarm went off upon driving into the yard.

Meanwhile, Gerda was still on the farm, silent, thinking the robbers had taken Gustav and could return at any time. After she managed to untie herself, she hid in the house and came out only after family and friends arrived to look for her.

Gustav and Gerda told of how they had called to God for help while being tied up and unsure whether the other was alive or not. “The Lord kept us calm. It was a terrible experience, but all honour to Him,” says Gerda.

By printing time, the police had still not tracked the robbers down. They traced Gustav’s cell phone signal to where the suspects had dropped the device in the Kraalkopspruit next to Fochville, and security cameras from homes in the area show they had fled on foot.

While rushing to attend to Gustav, a well-known paramedic, Nick Kennedy from ER24, collapsed at the victims’ home in Fochville after apparently suffering a heart attack. His partner, Charlie Searle, had to rush him to Fountain Private Hospital. They then transferred him to the Life Anncron Hospital in Klerkdorp. By printing time, he was doing well and about to be discharged.