Two of 8 black males who
tried to strangle to death Mrs Francina Brink were police-officers: Pretoria
North court hears
10:47 Mar 7 2013 Pretoria North
Description
88 year
old victim Francina Brink describes strangling-torture by gunmen in
SAPS-uniforms: Pretoria North court
2013-03-04 Beeld journalist Hanti Otto attended the trial of eight black men charged with the attack on September 15 2010 against a frail Afrikaner victim, Mrs Mrs Francina Albertina Brink (then 85) inside her Pretoria North home. Two of the eight accused males Lucky Maepa and Tshepo Masemolo are SAPS-officers. On the day before the attack, according to the charge sheets before the court, Maepa had requested to be issued with police uniforms at the Silverton SAPS-stores. The eight accused males, Thabo Moumakwe, Nico Shokwane, Abnar Moreti, Herman Mtshebi, Lucky Maepa, Kala Baloko, Tshepo Masemolo and Tlou Mashalane, pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, attempted murder, posing as police officers and armed robbery. The men are accused of assaulting the old lady, now 88 years old, trying to strangle her to death and holding a gun against her head. After this, the men - she pointed them out in the courtroom - had hogtied her hands and feet; dumped her on her bed and then walked from her room, she testified. She greatly feared they'd be back to kill her as one man wearing a bullet-proof vest had told her earlier: 'Don't think we are playing games. Today you are dead,' and had pointed a gun to her head. She testified: "So I rolled off the bed, put my back against the bed and grabbed my pistol from underneath the bed with my hands tied together. I pointed the gun at the door, knowing that if the gunmen returned now, I'd be dead,' she told the Pretoria North regional court. She fired off a shot as soon as she saw a male figure shadowed in the doorway - but it was a worker, Johannes, who had also been tied up but managed to get himself lose and was rushing to help 'Ouma'. Fortunately her bullet only hit Johannes in a finger, she testified. Mrs Brink was brought into the courtroom on a wheelchair but ever since the attack, walks with great difficulty, the court was told. During the attack in September 2010, the old woman still was able to walk with a stick. Another of the 8 accused, Herman Mtshebi, was a worker on the Bon Accord smallholdings north of Pretoria where Mrs Brink lived with her children. Mrs Brink testified that on that day, 15 September 2010, Mtshebi had locked up the family's two 'big, fierce' boerbull dogs, telling her there was a hole in the fence. At 13h00 her carer, Mrs Rebecca Ngcanga came to tell her that 'the police are here, they are looking for the documents of the Zimbabweans.' Mrs Brink said she trusted the uniformed men and Mrs Ngcanga helped her walk to see the 'visitors'. Mrs Brink said when she and Mrs Ngcanga arrived in the living room, she saw some of the family workers standing on their knees, tied up. "I also saw a policeman in uniform, who took my arm and took me to my room. All this time I still believed he was a policeman until he took off my watch and I asked him why he was doing that,' she testified. Then the men descended on her, beating her repeatedly in the face, and tried to strangle her to death with a shirt while tying her hands and feet together and dumping her on her bed.
The trial was postponed (to an unknown date) later this month, wrote Otto.
http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Bejaarde-se-hoe-polisie-haar-wurg-20130304
THE INITIAL POLICE REPORT CLAIMED THERE HAD ONLY BEEN FOUR ATTACKERS:
2013-03-04 Beeld journalist Hanti Otto attended the trial of eight black men charged with the attack on September 15 2010 against a frail Afrikaner victim, Mrs Mrs Francina Albertina Brink (then 85) inside her Pretoria North home. Two of the eight accused males Lucky Maepa and Tshepo Masemolo are SAPS-officers. On the day before the attack, according to the charge sheets before the court, Maepa had requested to be issued with police uniforms at the Silverton SAPS-stores. The eight accused males, Thabo Moumakwe, Nico Shokwane, Abnar Moreti, Herman Mtshebi, Lucky Maepa, Kala Baloko, Tshepo Masemolo and Tlou Mashalane, pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, attempted murder, posing as police officers and armed robbery. The men are accused of assaulting the old lady, now 88 years old, trying to strangle her to death and holding a gun against her head. After this, the men - she pointed them out in the courtroom - had hogtied her hands and feet; dumped her on her bed and then walked from her room, she testified. She greatly feared they'd be back to kill her as one man wearing a bullet-proof vest had told her earlier: 'Don't think we are playing games. Today you are dead,' and had pointed a gun to her head. She testified: "So I rolled off the bed, put my back against the bed and grabbed my pistol from underneath the bed with my hands tied together. I pointed the gun at the door, knowing that if the gunmen returned now, I'd be dead,' she told the Pretoria North regional court. She fired off a shot as soon as she saw a male figure shadowed in the doorway - but it was a worker, Johannes, who had also been tied up but managed to get himself lose and was rushing to help 'Ouma'. Fortunately her bullet only hit Johannes in a finger, she testified. Mrs Brink was brought into the courtroom on a wheelchair but ever since the attack, walks with great difficulty, the court was told. During the attack in September 2010, the old woman still was able to walk with a stick. Another of the 8 accused, Herman Mtshebi, was a worker on the Bon Accord smallholdings north of Pretoria where Mrs Brink lived with her children. Mrs Brink testified that on that day, 15 September 2010, Mtshebi had locked up the family's two 'big, fierce' boerbull dogs, telling her there was a hole in the fence. At 13h00 her carer, Mrs Rebecca Ngcanga came to tell her that 'the police are here, they are looking for the documents of the Zimbabweans.' Mrs Brink said she trusted the uniformed men and Mrs Ngcanga helped her walk to see the 'visitors'. Mrs Brink said when she and Mrs Ngcanga arrived in the living room, she saw some of the family workers standing on their knees, tied up. "I also saw a policeman in uniform, who took my arm and took me to my room. All this time I still believed he was a policeman until he took off my watch and I asked him why he was doing that,' she testified. Then the men descended on her, beating her repeatedly in the face, and tried to strangle her to death with a shirt while tying her hands and feet together and dumping her on her bed.
The trial was postponed (to an unknown date) later this month, wrote Otto.
http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Bejaarde-se-hoe-polisie-haar-wurg-20130304
THE INITIAL POLICE REPORT CLAIMED THERE HAD ONLY BEEN FOUR ATTACKERS:
"She ‘could never have dreamt’ -- she told journalist Hilda Fourie of Beeld -- ‘that the four men who arrived in police uniforms were robbers instead’. Her black carer, Mrs Rebecca Ngcanga, had told Mrs Brink that there were ‘police officers at the gate who wanted to see if all the workers had legal documentation’… Instead the ‘police officers’ walked inside, forced the workers to kneel with their heads to the floor, and tied them up. They grabbed Mrs Brink by an arm, took the old lady to her room, ripped off her watch and diamond-ring, tied her hands and feet together, beat her and demanded to know where ‘the safe’ was. “They threatened that if I didn’t talk they would kill me,’ said the old lady, who is a heart-sufferer. She opened the safe - and then they pushed rags into her mouth, covered her head in cloths and started strangling her before leaving her on the bed. While leaving the homestead, the old woman rolled off the bed and found her loaded firearm lying underneath it – just in time to see a black hand grabbing her bed-room door-jamb. In her fear, she fired off a shot -- but it turned out that she’d shot a gardener in his hand because the workers had managed to get loose and were rushing to her aid. Mrs Brink then phoned her grandson – who stopped a police van enroute his rush to the smallholding and described the vehicle in which the gang had fled. The description was immediately broadcast over the police radio, said Lt Col Eugene Opperman, and members from the Mamelodi-East SAPS spotted the car there, forced it off the road, and arrested the driver. After questioning they also arrested another gang-member and are still looking for the other two.
http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Rowers-in-uniforms-rand-hartlyer-aan-20100917
http://www.boerentrepreneur.com/farmitracker/reports/view/568
