A pensioner who was robbed and brutally assaulted near the Cape Gate interchange on the N1, is in the process of filing a complaint against two Kraaifontein police staffers for the way they handled his case.
On Friday evening August 12, Johann Heunis, 63, from Joostenbergvlakte, had been driving back to Kraaifontein with his brother Hugo from Shelley Point on the West Coast.
In an emotional post on Facebook, he said as they were about to enter the N1 at the Cape Gate interchange, the roof of a golf cart, which they had been transporting for delivery, flew off their trailer.
They stopped on the side of the road and Mr Heunis went to pull it on the side of the road, while Hugo drove further on to try to make a U-turn.
While he waited for his brother, Mr Heunis was confronted by two men who appeared out of nowhere, while another came from behind and smashed his head with a brick before they assaulted him and robbed him of his cellphone, wallet and glasses.
Dazed from the blows he suffered, Mr Heunis tried to put up a fight, but the assailants overpowered him.
At one point, when he had held one of his robbers in a choke-hold on the ground, he said, he overheard them shouting “stiek hom, stiek hom (stab him)”, which is when he let go of the man.
He got up and made a run for his life and one of the criminals chased after him.
“I managed to get onto my feet and in my dizzy state attempted to ‘run’ towards the intersection. One of these cowards chased after me, but gave up when I stupidly turned around to face him in self-defence,” he wrote in the post.
His brother, Hugo, found him half-conscious and with blood pouring down his face. He said he knew the dangers of stopping on the side of the N1 and N2.
He lambasted the Kraaifontein police for “absolute apathy”. He said the officer who had attended to his case had left a bad impression on him.
Mr Heunis said when the police came to his house they took down his statement but did not express much empathy with his situation.
The Northern News understands that Mr Heunis is planning to approach the provincial office of the police ombudsman but the ombudsman’s office said it had not received a formal complaint yet.
Professor Erwin Schwella, of Stellenbosch University’s School of Public Leadership, who also runs the Professional Policing in Bellville South Africa Facebook page, told the Northern News he was helping Mr Heunis with the case.
He said he would be able to divulge further information once he gets back from an overseas trip.
The Kraaifontein police had not responded to queries sent to them at the time of going to print.
