Our members were run over deliberately: EFF

One woman died and three women were critically injured when they were hit by a bakkie yesterday at about midday on the N2 North, North Coast Courier reported.

“If you look at the marks on the side railings and the debris at the scene, you can see that the car went out of its way to hit the four ladies in the emergency lane. I am sure he wanted to kill all four of them,” claimed EFF provincial party member of land affairs Tobias Mthiyane.

Mthiyane also claimed the owners of Green Fields farm had not allowed their members to leave the farm via the footpaths they arrived on and were forced to cross the highway.

This was after the EFF had erected an illegal structure on Green Fields farm, opposite Ballito on the N2, which the party had attempted to occupy the day before.

Police gave the farm’s shareholders permission to demolish the shack and the land claimants left the site, only to regroup a couple of hundred metres away.

However, Mthiyane’s claims are in stark contrast to statements by police officers and Green Fields farm shareholder Ricky Pissarra and legal occupant of the farm, Ian Deetlefs.

According to Umhlali police, they were alerted that the group of land claimants were stoning vehicles on the N2 and arrived shortly after the accident occurred.

Captain Maharaj was on the scene and said that according to witnesses the driver of the bakkie had swerved to avoid a pedestrian in the middle of the road, and as a result he hit the four women in the emergency lane, then hit the railings.

Pissarra said the group entered the highway at their own free will, as neither he nor Deetlefs were on the farm at that time.

“I was at the police station when they decided to walk on the freeway,” said Pissarra.

– Caxton News Service