Armed robbery on Muldersdrift injures another

An elderly farmer from Mpumalanga is recovering in hospital after he was attacked and shot three times on his farm. File photo.

An elderly farmer from Mpumalanga is recovering in hospital after he was attacked and shot three times on his farm. File photo.

Published Jan 14, 2013

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Johannesburg - A 22-year-old is recovering in hospital after being shot on a Muldersdrift plot. A resident was killed and another injured in two separate armed robberies in the past two months.

Kieran Harris was shot on Thursday night while he and three friends, who had arrived from Europe, were having dinner.

The three foreigners are from France and Belgium, and are in the country on holiday.

The property owner, Warren Lurie, 22, said he believes Harris had been shot by the same gang who murdered Jacques Botha in November.

“They were both shot with the same calibre pistol, a .22. They were waiting for them and the shooting was more or less at the same time in the evening,” said Lurie.

He said the three armed men came into the cottage around 9pm and pointed guns at them. They instructed the four to lie down, but Harris refused. Lurie said he was shot three times - in the shoulder, neck and hand.

The armed men took a cellphone and a bag full of clothes, then fled. “I don’t think these guys had a plan,” said Lurie.

Harris was taken to Life Fourways Hospital, where he was in an induced coma, Lurie said.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said no arrests had been made.

Botha had been shot on the same property on November 11 after he and his wife Anel had arrived home and found three armed robbers already in their home.

Botha was shot three times in the abdomen in front of his wife and three-year-old son.

He died before reaching hospital. The incident took place at about 8pm.

Two days before that, another man was stabbed and injured during a home invasion on the same property.

Lurie leases out eight cottages on the property. Harris had moved into the cottage at the beginning of this month.

“He really loved the property, he enjoys the outdoors,” said Lurie.

“He knew about the security situation, I told them they needed to lock their doors at night, but still this happens.”

Lurie said he had tried to secure his property better by employing two security guards since the first two incidents.

He said the guards were unarmed and could not intervene.

Lurie said he wasn’t on the property at the time of the incident.

He said the police were alerted, but the robbers had left by the time they arrived.

On Sunday Lurie said he had decided to sell the property.

“We invested in security, but now we’ve decided it isn’t worth it, as people are dying,” he said.

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The Star

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