Robbers run after fightback
They demanded cash and took R2 000 as well as a cellphone and wallet containing R400.
One suspect was shot and seriously wounded and another arrested during an armed robbery near Hazyview on April 15.
That morning at about 09:30 Corrie Taljaard and his son CJ of Let’s Fixit Handyman contractors stopped their truck at the sand works next to the R536, just before the Magwanzi Bridge over the Sabie River, to load sand for a concrete structure they were erecting.
The proprietor of the sand works informed them that the TLB which had to load the sand was still on its way and would take some time to arrive.
Corrie decided to return later and started his truck to leave when three suspects, two of whom were armed with pistols, walked past. It later emerged that they were on their way to a pickup to rob a shop owner at Mkhuhlu but noticing the truck, decided to rob it first.
The two armed men pulled open both the truck’s doors and held Corrie and CJ at gunpoint. They demanded cash and took the R2 000 intended as payment for the sand from Corrie, as well as CJ’s cellphone and wallet containing R400.
Just then an unidentified civilian from Mkhuhlu drove past in a red BMW. When he noticed the robbery taking place, he stopped close to the truck, drew his pistol and jumped out of the car, shouting at the suspects.
They opened fire on him and when firing back he wounded the closest suspect in his side. As the suspect fell his accomplices ran into bush behind the sand heaps.
The BMW driver jumped into his car and sped off.
Corrie, who had hidden his cellphone from the suspects, then contacted his other son Piet, after which he drove off to Calcutta Police Station to report the robbery and the shooting. Piet in turn phoned Spes-Plan operations manager Pieter Burger.
Burger and Wayne Hattingh who driving past Four Ways, some seven kilometres away, raced to the scene while calling for armed response from their operations centre.
Arriving at the scene, Burger and Hattingh first drove to the other side of the bridge to search for the suspects, but found no one. Turning back, they stopped at the sand works just as the two suspects came back over the sand heaps, carrying their wounded accomplice.
When they saw Burger and Hattingh, they drew their weapons again, but both Burger and Hattingh fired warning shots which passed close to them, upon which they dropped their wounded comrade and fled back into the bush.
While Burger and Hattingh were attending to the wounded suspect, Daniel Likuwa from Spesplan Armed Response, and minutes later a Calcutta police vehicle with six policemen, arrived.
Likuwa noticed that the suspects moved off through the bush along the Sabie River, then turned away from the river in the direction of Hazyview. Shortly afterwards one of them turned back towards the R536.
While the police vehicle slowly moved along the road in the direction of Hazyview, Likuwa sneaked into the bush to intercept the suspect moving towards the road. When he got close to him, the suspect started running and when he reached the road, stopped a taxi and was picked up.
Likuwa alerted the police who stopped the taxi and the suspect was identified and arrested.
They found R1 450 hidden on his person. He was taken to Hazyview Police Station. The wounded suspect was transported by ambulance to Matikwane Hospital. At the time of going to press it was not clear whether he survived.
The hunt was still on for the suspect that got away, as well as for two accomplices who would have picked them up in a yellow Toyota Tazz for the intended robbery at Mkhuhlu.
