Elderly man assaulted during R40 protest
"He was beaten up to such an extent that it looks like he was attacked by bees."
A man in his 70s was beaten to a pulp and the truck he was driving set alight as the protest on the R40 again reached boiling point last week.
The ongoing dispute, that started three months ago, is due to the residents’ demand that a particular stretch of road they use on a daily basis be tarred.
On Thursday, Mr Althius Dube was driving on the road on his way to pick up fruit in Hoedspruit when a number of men emerged from all directions. He tried to retreat, but the truck’s trailer made this impossible.
As Dube attempted to drive forward in order to turn the truck around, some of the protesters jumped onto the truck and opened the doors.
“They took the keys out of the ignition and threw them away,” said the owner of the truck, Mr Frikkie Cronje.
They demanded Dube’s phone and money, but he refused to give them to the aggressors.
“They pulled the elderly driver out of the truck by his feet. He fell so hard on his back that he still can’t walk,” Cronje said.
“He was beaten up to such an extent that it looks like he was attacked by bees,” Cronje added.
He ran into the veld, and before long a bakkie pulled up and took him to safety. As he left the scene, the protesters set the truck and trailer alight, after which it burnt out.
“The trailer contained about 70 plastic crates and 50 wooden ones, easily worth R200 000,” he said.
To replace the vehicle with a used one will set Cronje back at least R1 million, and that is without the turnover of about R160 000 this truck brought to the company.
“What now?” asked Cronje.
“If these protesters are unhappy with the government, why should innocent people become victims?”
• On February 14, a sugar truck was hijacked and close to 20 tonnes of sugar was looted. If a two-kilogram pack of sugar cost R24, the damage incurred in this instance was about R240 000.
• On February 20, the protesters threatened to set alight an ambulance.
The paramedics were attempting to treat a patient showing symptoms of a heart attack.
“They came from all directions and as I approached, some jumped on my truck and opened my doors,” the victim, Mr Piet Coetser, said.
One grabbed and jerked the steering wheel in an attempt to flip the vehicle over. They took his keys and spare keys.
One of his attackers aimed a pistol at him. He thought he was going to die, but luckily he was able to escape unscathed.
They also threatened to set his truck alight.
He begged them not to, and they agreed, but hijacked another two approaching trucks while he was on the scene.
• On February 24, the protesters shot at one of Cronje’s trucks and pummelled it with rocks.
“No one is taking responsibility and no one is stopping them, and if this continues, there is no end in sight,” said Cronje.
Hazyview Herald spoke to the protesters and one of them said that they will not stop before they get what they want.
Tourists and locals were warned to avoid the area, and had to travel to Bushbuckridge via the Graskop road, especially in the early hours and late in the afternoons, when the protesters usually took to the streets.
The road was clear at the time of going to press.
