‘You will not burn my kids; you can rather shoot me today but you will not burn my kids!’

These were the desperate cries of a mother who would sacrifice herself to protect her husband and children from at least four armed robbers who invaded their home in Lupine Street on Friday morning.

When this brave woman woke up on an ordinary school day to prepare breakfast for her family, she wasn’t prepared for what was about to happen to her or her family. Her husband was praying in the living room while she was having breakfast with her children in the dining room.

After her son (12) had finished eating, he went outside to the garage to fetch tuck shop money from his mother’s car. But, when he opened the garage door, three armed men jumped at him, covered his mouth, held guns to his head and brought him back into the house.

Unwelcome guests

‘When I heard the front door seconds later, I went to ask him why he was back so quickly. He said ‘mommy’ and when I looked up, I saw three men behind him, holding guns to his head. They said ‘shut up, or we are going to kill you.’

Two of them went into the house, one pointed a gun at her head and the other went to the living room and pointed a gun at her husband’s head.

‘My daughters (7 and 8 years old) were sitting in the dining room. The fourth guy walked to them and pushed one off her chair.’ He took her daughters to the kitchen where she, her son and the two other armed men were.
‘My husband came around from the living room, not knowing there were armed men with us. He started hitting the man who was pointing a gun at him.’

There was a struggle and the woman begged her husband not to fight the robber. She told the men she would give them what they wanted if they left her family alone. She asked them to let her husband and children stand in the corner next to the fridge.

‘I told my son to try and pull the fridge door open if they did shoot, so the bullet would hit the fridge door and not them.’

She told the suspects to go with her to the main bedroom where all their valuable belongings were.

Brave mother steps in

‘I thought it would be better for me to go with them because they would probably be calmer with a woman. I knew that if my husband went with them, they would kill him.’

The men followed her to the main bedroom and demanded money. She said they did not keep money at home and that there was no safe in the house. They didn’t believe her and hit her.

‘I went to switch on the light and he thought it was a panic button so he hit me again and I flew across the room. It was terrible. They choked me and pushed and pulled me – it felt like they were ripping me apart. They took me back down and threw me down the first flight of stairs.’

The suspects went back to the kitchen and the two other men went back up with her. They switched on the light and she gave them the jewellery, cell phones, laptops and tablets. But they still wanted money and kept asking about a safe. She suddenly remembered that she had money in the car.

‘Two of them walked me to the car with guns at my back. I walked as slowly as possible, hoping the neighbours would see, but nobody did.’

Robbers wanted more

The money in the car wasn’t enough for them. They wanted to take her to an ATM to withdraw all the money she could from her bank accounts. Before they left, one of them asked her where her cell phone was. She told them they had already taken it but they didn’t believe her and made her go and look for it. While searching in the kitchen, she came across the panic button and pressed it.

Mooirivier Beskerming started phoning but she couldn’t tell them what was wrong because the men were pointing their weapons at her.

‘When the woman asked if everything was all right, I kept quiet and just gave her the wrong password, then I cut the phone.’

Two of the men took her upstairs again, asking for the safe but she insisted that there was no safe. They attacked her, hit her, tried to stab her with a fork and threw her against the cupboard before dragging her back to the kitchen.

‘One of them threatened to burn my husband and kids if I didn’t give them the money. Then he switched the kettle on and I couldn’t take it anymore.’

She told her husband and children to stay behind the fridge while the kettle was boiling.

‘As he took the kettle and went up to them, I grabbed him and pinned him against the kitchen door and said: ‘you will not burn my kids, you can rather shoot me today but you will not burn my kids!’

Help is coming

Just then, Mooirivier Beskerming came to help. The first security officer on the scene was held at gunpoint and had to give up his weapon because the robbers were threatening to shoot the woman. After he was beaten by the men, they told him to join the rest of the family in the corner next to the fridge.

More security officers came to the house and the robbers tried to flee. A gunfight broke loose and one of the robbers was allegedly hit in his lower body but managed to escape.

Four suspects appear in court for house robbery

The four men who were arrested for house robbery on Friday appeared in the Potchefstroom magistrates’ court on Monday and Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the court heard that two of the suspects had made a confession after they were arrested. Some of the stolen goods were found in two other suspects’ possession.
Batho Khoza, Adam Sithole, Gift Mazaza and Jabu Khoza will appear in court again on Friday. They remain in custody.

According to police spokesperson Capt. Mvula Chaka, it seems like the men live in Tembisa on the East Rand and three of them are foreign nationals. He says the police are still investigating the possibility that the men may be linked to other robberies in Potchefstroom. The police are also still searching for two more suspects who could be linked to the house robbery on Friday.