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PTA Woman Attacked After Row With Gardener
PTA Woman Attacked After Row With Gardener
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Two Pretoria women have been attacked by a gardener and his friend in Bronkhorstspruit, following an argument over missing household items, Beeld reported on Thursday.
Edri Myburgh, 26, and her mother-in-law, Anna Myburgh, 55, were reportedly tortured with a hot iron and knives after Anna's husband left for work on Wednesday.
Using firearms believed to have been stolen earlier in the week, the men entered the house and overpowered the domestic worker Paulina Zithobeni.
Anna was confronted in a passage and repeatedly stabbed before being tied up and burnt with a hot iron by the men, who demanded guns and money.
Beeld reported that the assailants were disturbed when Edri stopped outside the house to visit her mother-in-law.
They held Zithobeni at gunpoint and forced her to tell Edri her mother-in-law was not at home, but the woman refused to leave.
On entering the house she was hit on the head until she collapsed. She too was tied up and tortured.
The men packed stolen goods into the Myburgh's car and drove off in it with the three women moments before Hans arrived home to find out why he had been unable to contact them on by cellphone or on the home telephone.
Seeing blood throughout the house, he called the police and a search was started.
Police blocked off the N4 highway and the old Bronkhorstspruit Road after they were alerted to the withdrawal of money from the women's accounts in Witbank.
However, the women had been taken to an old farm road near Spitskop where Anna was shot in the back of the head and Edri in the mouth.
Zithobeni was forced back into the car.
A farmer, Willem Theron, alerted police to the whereabouts of the men when he came across a gun next to the Myburgh's crashed car a short while later. Both were arrested.
Edri had meanwhile regained consciousness and, thinking Anna was dead, walked 12km through thick bushes and fields to a farmhouse for help. When Anna came around, she crawled to a dirt road and flagged down a motorist.
Both women were in a serious condition in the Pretoria East Hospital.
Zithobeni, who was injured when the car overturned, was also taken to hospital.
Edri's husband, Henk Myburgh, said the family was devastated.
"Our children do not know what is going on. How do I explain this to my 9-month-old son, Hein? How do I tell his sisters, Simoné, 2, and Joanet, 6, that their mommy and granny have been shot?" Myburgh asked.
Police said the men had been charged with two counts of attempted murder, kidnapping, possession of unlicensed firearms, ammunition and stolen property and vehicle theft.
Source: Praag.co.uk
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