Afrikaner Gerhard Fourie 68, shot dead on Hartswater North Cape smallholding: nothing robbed from the owner of SA Ground-Nut Marketing, Hopetown
06 Feb 2014 -- Gerhard Fourie, 68, was shot dead on February 5 2015 by at least two black gunmen outside his homestead in Hartswater, North Cape. Nothing was 'robbed' during the attack at the agricultural hamlet (population 10,200). Mr Fourie was the owner of the SA Ground-Nut Marketing, a peanut-sorting company at Hopetown, (population 10,000).
Maranda van Zyl, a family-friend who spent the night with the Fourie family, said an overwhelming feeling of helplessness and confusion overcame her when she saw a friend being shot dead outside his homestead - and then bleeding out.
He was shot in the groin. Mrs Van Zyl said she woke up from a noise around 01h00am, snuck a peek through the curtain and saw someone standing in front of the window,
The house-guest quietly walked to the Fourie couple's bedroom and told Gerhard and his wife Annetjie that she had seen a person outside.
"He went to get his rifle and went to my room to take a look. He noticed people at the window cutting through the burglar bars'.
Maranda advised him to first fire a warning shot before going outside, but Fourie went out of the house."He disappeared into the dark and I heard an exchange of words. He spoke to them. Then the shots went off. They fired and so did he.He came running back into the homestead and I realized he'd been shot. I helped him into the house and locked the door.
" I felt terribly helpless and realized there was nothing I could do. I was confused and I had no emergency training. The adrenaline takes over, everything happens automatically. You see blood and know you have to do something'.
Mr Fourie's son-in-law, Glenn Murdock, tried to apply pressure to the groin-wound while I phoned the SAPS and the doctor.
We all simulataneously were trying to stop the wound from bleeding out. There was so much blood.'When the doctor arrived he could not find a pulse-beat except just a slight flicker, once. The doctor said basically he was brain-dead. He was shot in the left-groin.It was also found that a lock on the gate to the rear of the smallholding also was cut through.
Mr Fourie also farmed with pecan-nuts as a hobby. Van Zyl said he was a 'very good and caring person but also could be fierce.'He was honest and fair and looked after his workers well'.
Mr Fourie leaves his wife Annetjie, and three daughters, Alta Schwerdtfeger of Louis Trichardt, Anneline Burger of Pietersburg and Christine Murdock of Pretoria. The couple lived alone on the Hartswater smallholding. Annetjie is an arthritis-sufferer and needs a wheelchair to get around in. She reportedly is always home. SAPS lt. Andrea Cloete said the police were still searching for the two suspects. The men ran away after the shooting.Nothing was stolen in the attack, she confirmed.
BACKGROUND
The Fourie murder occurred at the height several days of protests in the area's black township of Pudumong - with residents burning tyres, throwing stones and blocking the road, demanding a tarmac road. On September 6, 2014, a road between Vryburg and Hartswater was closed after the local community members took to the streets their protesting against poor service delivery. The towns of Pudumong, Matlapaneng and other neighbouring areas were picketing on the N18 and barricaded the road with tree branches and burning tyres, it was reported on February 6 2014.
The community said they want a tarred road and they are gatvol as they have waited forever.
“We spoke to previous mayors but nothing was done. Now we saw fit to take to the streets to show unhappiness” community representative Kabelo Gaseranye told sabc.
The protesters barricaded the road and no vehicles were allowed to pass by.
The police monitored the situation and according to other media reports, the current mayor Kaone Lobelo came to address "the masses: .
The community members will submit their memorandum tomorrow morning at 06:00.-TDN
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http://taungdailynews.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/pudumong-protesters-near-taung-prepared-to-die/
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HARTSWATER - the centre of the Vaalharts Irrigation scheme:
Hartswater is an agricultural town on the Pokwani River, a small tributary of the Harts River, some 23 km south of Taung and 36 km north of Warrenton. Its food-production concentrations on the production of ground-nuts, pecan nuts and similar dry-food productions.
Centre of the Vaalharts Irrigation Scheme -- which was founded during the Great Depression as a subsistance-farming scheme to help with the survival of white and coloured families -- became a municipality in April 1960. It takes its name from the Harts River. The town was laid out in 1948. There is a monument built in the shape of a miniature church dedicated to the women of Vaalharts for their contribution towards building and developing the Vaalharts irrigation scheme located in the town of Hartswater. The town has its own wine cellar and also a newly built olive processing business.
Hartswater is centrally located to Jan Kempdorp, Pampierstad, Ganspan, Taung and Christiana.
HOPETOWN HISTORY
Hopetown (suburbs: Gou Trou, Steynville) lies at the edge of the Great Karoo in South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is situated on an arid slope leading down to the Orange River.
Hopetown was founded in 1850 when the UK colonial forces in Cape Town headed by Sir Harry Smith, annexed the northern frontier of the Cape Colony to the Orange River after diamonds were found there.
A handful of settlers staked out claims on land located near a natural ford across the Orange River over the Orange River, and by 1854 a frontier town had developed.
Hopetown was named after William Hope, Auditor-General and Secretary of the Cape Colony Government at the time.
The first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was found at Hopetown. Before the town grew up around the diamond-claims, it was was a quiet farming area until several large diamonds, most notable the Eureka Diamond and the Star of South Africa, were discovered there between 1867 and 1869.
To accommodate the rapid export of diamondsto the UK, the British colony in Cape Town linked the town with a railway in 1872 with the main western line running between the Kimberley diamond fields and Cape Town on the coast, directly through Hopetown.
The ford was upgraded to a railway bridge in 1884. 88% of the residents of Hopetown speak Afrikaans.
It is often mistaken for a town in the Freestate, South Africa with the Afrikaans name of Hoopstad.
Hoopstad is a different town and should not be confused with Hopetown in the Northern Cape, South Africa.
http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P03014/P030142011.pdf
FIRST REPORT:
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Afrikaner farmer Gerhardt Fourie, 78, murdered in farm attack, Hartswater, Norch Cape 6 February 2014 early morning:
It is suspected that Mr Fourie was murdered by 'burglars when he went to investigate a noise,' said family friend Hannes Viviers. He said the police 'could find no fingerprints on the crime-scene.' The SAPS suspects -- he was quoted as saying -- that the suspects reached the protected homestead by climbing across a 3-metre-high wall. No details thus far if anything was robbed, nor how the murdered man was discovered.
http:/www.saps.gov.za
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