Johannesburg - A pensioner was shot dead at a Soweto pay-point when he told the gang robbing it to “voetsek”.
Pensioners tripped over each other and fell in the panicked scramble to flee the pay-point when gunfire started. One elderly woman had a seizure and another an asthma attack from stress.
The gunmen had arrived at the Net1 Financial Services building in Diepkloof on Tuesday morning to find the place milling with social grant recipients. They fired randomly and bombed three ATMs.
When it was over, a pensioner had been shot and killed; a security guard shot and wounded; and all the money stolen, with elderly people nursing their injuries after being caught in the stampede.
The elderly woman of Vlakfontein, south of Joburg, who had a seizure did not want to be named and said she believed that the pensioner was shot dead because he didn't realise how dangerous the gunmen were. When the robbers arrived and told everyone to lie down, the old man had been irritated and told them to “voetsek”.
Later, she heard that he had been shot dead. She ran out when the shooting started.
“As soon as I was outside I had an epileptic fit and was out for some time. When I came to, I was lying in the sun, dazed and confused. I started shouting, ‘what’s going on, what’s going’ and some people who were hiding underneath cars beckoned me to come to them,” she said.
Another Vlakfontein woman, a 63-year-old who also didn’t want to be named, avoided being shot when she had an asthma attack. She said she heard screams coming from outside and turned to see a woman collapsing in the doorway.
A shot was fired after the gunmen and everyone scattered, falling over each other, with some fainting, she said. An elderly woman with a heart problem battled to move and just put her hand over her heart. She said the robbers then bombed the ATMs, leaving the building filled with smoke.
Captain Phephi Matlou-Mteto, said it was not known how many shots were fired as many cartridges were found at the scene. She said the robbers were still at large.
The Star