A man was shot five times, women assaulted and another made to sit on coals during attacks on five households on farms in Skeerpoort on Monday night.

According to Gert du Plessis of Oostermoed Security, a gang of about seven armed men hit two farms in the area shortly after 21:00. The first attack took place at a pecan nut farm. “Five armed men stormed a worker’s house and broke the windows. They demanded that the man come out and when he didn’t, shots were fired through the window, hitting the man five times. Another worker came out of his home to see what was going on and the attackers fired shots at him. He ran towards a nearby river where he was grabbed by two more men,” Du Plessis said.
By this time, the people who were attacked, had raised the alarm and Oostermoed security officers arrived on the farm. The attackers fled.
“While our paramedics, together with MATER Ambulance Services were still busy attending to the wounded man, we were alerted to another attack on a nearby farm. The same gang had attacked four houses of tenants on the farm. They followed the same modus operandi, ordering the tenants to come out of their homes.”
At the one house, when an elderly woman and her daughter refused to leave their home, the attackers broke through the roof, held the women at gunpoint, assaulted them and took cellphones, cash and clothes. “The group then split up and hit the other houses simultaneously. More shots were fired at houses. At one house, they again broke through the roof when a man and his wife would not come out. They stabbed the man in the head and then made him sit on coals while his wife was assaulted.”
The gang took cellphones, cash, clothes and other items from all the houses. They again fled when they saw security services arrive.
“Descriptions of the attackers by the victims and ammunition found on the scenes, indicate that it was the same gang of men that attacked both farms. This gang does not hesitate to shoot,’ Du Plessis said.
It is suspected that it might be the same violent gang of armed robbers that terrorised farms in the Broederstroom and Skeerpoort area two weeks ago. Six farms in the area were attacked in just one week.