A well-known local businessman was injured and an elderly woman was traumatised during a robbery and kidnapping incident that happened in Eltivillas last weekend.

The incident happened on Friday night, shortly after Dr Mohamed Dawood, owner and manager of Timbercity in Louis Trichardt, had returned from prayers at the local mosque at about 20:30. According to the doctor’s brother, Mr Mazher Godam, Dr Dawood and his wife had just returned home after fetching Ms Fareeda Aboo, so that she could go and visit his mother-in-law, who is in poor health.

Provincial police spokesperson, Lt-Col Ronél Otto, this week said: "As the doctor pulled up to his house in 3rd Street, he was cut off by four men in a blue Volkswagen Golf Gti. All four men were armed with pistols and wearing balaclavas."

When the doctor saw the armed men approaching his vehicle, he instructed is wife and Mrs Fareeda to disembark immediately. He later told members of the Makhado Police Station that his intention was to tell the thugs to rather take his vehicle and be off.

Sadly, the robbers were not interested in his vehicle alone. According to the police, one of the suspects grabbed hold of the doctor, trying to force him to get back into the vehicle.

Doctor Dawood refused and managed to grab hold of a pole on the sidewalk. All the while, the suspects were fighting with him. “One suspect hit him on the head with a firearm and one of the other suspects shot Dr Dawood in his left foot,” said Otto.

The suspects then snatched Ms Fareeda and forced her to get into the boot of their vehicle before speeding off. Along the way, the suspects got a hold of her cell phone and proceeded to telephone her daughter, demanding an exhorbitant amount of ransom money.

Back home, both families were frantic. “I cannot begin to tell you how traumatic the whole experience was,” said Mazher on Tuesday. “You arrive at the house after you’ve heard that your brother had been shot … for a moment I feared the worst,” he added.

Mazher spoke on behalf of Dr Dawood, who was understandably still very traumatized after the event.

According to the police, the kidnappers drove around for many kilometres with Ms Fareeda while trying to extort money from her family. The thugs also brutally assaulted her by kicking her all over her body. It is still unclear why they abandoned their plans, but after several hours they dumped her in the middle of the bush near Moria and disappeared.

“She had to walk for about 15 kilometres before she reached a tarred road, where she was assisted by a passing taxi driver who took her to his house and notified the police,” said Otto. She was returned to her family after receiving medical treatment.

The newspaper was not able to get hold of Ms Fareeda at the time of our going to press, but we were informed that her family had sent her off to visit relatives, where she could recuperate from both her physical and emotional scars.

Mazher also said that his brother and family were considering taking a much-needed family holiday elsewhere to recover. Doctor Dawood was treated in the Zoutpansberg Private Hospital for the wound in his foot and also had an operation in the Polokwane MediClinic. By Monday, he was recovering at home. “They are still going to do some X-rays on his foot, but at this stage it looks like he will recover well, without suffering any permanent damage to his foot,” said Mazher.

On behalf of the whole Dawood family, Mazher also expressed his sincere thanks towards the local police as well as the Soutpansberg Town Watch and the Eltivillas community. “To come to your house and there is this whole group ready to support you … they did a splendid job,” said Mazir. He also added a special note of thanks to Col Rambau (acting station commander), Lt-Col Van der Walt (cluster commander) and Mr Dries Rossouw (police reservist) for their support.

As a family, Mazher further said, they wanted to warn the community to be on the alert. “What happened to us was a random event and can happen to anyone.”

He called on the community to rather work with the police and make an effort to curb crime.

Lt-Col Otto confirmed that cases of attempted murder and kidnapping have been opened for further investigation.