Brutal knife attack leaves man severely injured

A 22-year-old man from Garsfontein is left with severely deep cuts to his arms, neck and face after he was brutally attacked on Garstfontein Road on Friday while walking home from work.

Shelton Manuel sustained two very deep cuts to his face and neck, severed tendons in his left hand, several cuts on his left arm and a bone-deep cut on his right bicep while he was walking home from the Gautrain bus stop on January Masilela Drive at around 18:45.

According to Manuel, he was walking over the bridge near the Waterglen shopping center on Garstfontein Road when he felt someone taking his phone from his pocket.

“As I turned around, I saw a man in a white hooded jacket starting to swing a knife at my face. I did not know how to respond and did not understand why he was still attacking me after I had already given him my phone,” Manuel said.

The suspect allegedly kept swinging at Manuel’s throat and he used his arms to fend the attack away from his throat and face.

“I realised he wasn’t just after my phone, but my life too,” Manuel said.

“So I decided to launch an attack against him. Unaware of my injuries at that point, I lurched at him and started to punch him.”

“The man ran away and I noticed two other men watching us – I presume they were somehow involved in this,” Manuel alleged.

He only then felt the sensation of warm blood running down his neck and body.

“I realised I didn’t have much time and I tried to flag down motorists for help. I was not sure I would make it home with the amount of blood I was losing.

“But although I screamed for help, no one stopped. Instead, motorists hooted and veered around me. When I asked two pedestrians to help, they kept on walking,” he said.

Manuel realised he had to get home fast. When he finally completed the 2km walk home and got to the front door he called for his mother to help as he collapsed.

According to his mother, Wendy Pretorius, she found her son lying in a pool of blood in front of their house.

“It looked like a waterfall of blood running down the stairs,” Pretorius recalled.

“I thought I was going to die,” Manuel said.

He was rushed to the Life Faerie Glen hospital and later transferred to the Eugene Marais hospital where he was treated.

His medical costs will run up to R80 000 and he does not have medical aid. He might also have to undergo plastic surgery to remove the scarring from his face.

“I am just lucky that I am alive. If I had not gotten home in the time I did, I definitely would have died.”

“I am also grateful that I had the strength to fight back. If my mother, who walked the same path 15 minutes earlier, had to be attacked she might not have been as lucky.”

Manuel told Rekord he was still shocked by the maliciousness of the attack and could not understand why the man kept trying to kill him after he had already taken what he wanted.

“The Garsfontein police is seeing the attack in serious light and I am grateful for this. I would just like to warn others about the area. I escaped and barely made it with my life – I do not want others to go through the same ordeal,” he concluded.