MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) – An armed gang this week opened fire on a security guard on the farm New Country, scene of the recent barbaric attack on the Wiedeck farming couple.

The incident was reported to the police, but nobody has been arrested. So far, no arrest has been made in the armed robbery and attempted murder on the German couple, Mr Werner Wiedeck and his wife Brigitte, either.

A spokesperson for a security company guarding the premises said this week that on several occasions since the farm attack, in which Brigitte was critically injured, a group of trespassers, who apparently lurk in a hide-out near the Wiedeck farm, is frequently met close to the farm house.

On one occasion, two of these trespassers were taken into custody by security guards and handed to the local police, who questioned and deported them. On enquiry, a police spokesperson said the men were Zimbabwean citizens and denied that they had anything to do with the attack on the Wiedecks. They were therefore immediately deported. Some 50 illegal immigrants are rounded up on a daily basis in town and transported to Musina to be processed for deportation. A special train from Johannesburg with an estimated average of 1000 illegal immigrants pass through the town on a weekly basis, taking them to Beitbridge for deportation. Some of these deportees have on occasion boasted to their escorts that they (the illegal immigrants) would be back in town before the officials who escorted them from here to Musina.

Early this week, on Sunday night, a security guard once again found a group of men on the farm near the farm house, scene of the brutal attack on the Wiedecks. When the men saw the guard, they fled from the farmyard into the dark, but then turned round and fired at the guard.

“The guard returned fire, at which the criminals fled – apparently to a well-established hiding place, from which their frequent sorties onto the farm are conducted,” said a spokesperson for the security company. He said the incident was reported telephonically to the police, but the po-lice did not come out to investigate.

On Tuesday this week, a group of trespassers was once again confronted at the Wiedeck residence by a security guard. Two men and a woman were taken to the police station and an OB number was issued by the attending police inspector.

When the communications officer at the local police station, Insp Daniel Ndlovu, was approached about these incidents this week, he denied any knowledge of it. He said there was no record of the shooting incident. When asked about general progress of the investigation into the barbaric attack on the Wiedecks, and the subsequent repeated trespassing at the house, he wanted to know why the reporter was so interested in happenings at the specific farm. He referred all further enquiries to his station commander.

The station commander, Supt Naledzani Sevhule, said she was not allowed to talk to the media and referred the newspaper to the Area Communications Officer, Supt Alwei Mushawanamadi.

Supt Mushawanamadi confirmed that the investigation had been transferred to the Unit for Serious and Violent Crime in Thohoyandou and also confirmed that, as yet, no arrest had been made in the investigation into the brutal attack on the farming couple. He also denied all knowledge of any trespassing or other incidents on the farm since the first attack. He was totally unaware of the shooting incident on Sunday night. He also denied knowledge of the fact that suspects, found by security personnel and handed to the police, had not been arrested, but deported after questioning. He said that he would investigate the matter.