MARA – Two people died and one was wounded in an extensive search operation which ended in a shootout with trigger-happy robbers, in possession of a police firearm.

Two suspected armed robbers, who demonstrated a total disregard for human life, were killed in the shootout and two were arrested by members of the community and handed to the police.

Rural support units, comprising civilians from Vivo to Waterpoort, were initially alerted after reports of four suspicious individuals moving around on farms in the area. A full-scale search operation was mounted, after confirmation of an armed robbery at a store in the Kruispad Pax area on Friday night (7 October) and an attempted armed robbery at the Blouberg Nature Reserve, in which four suspects were initially involved. From Blouberg Reserve it was reported that guards on duty were held at gunpoint by the suspects who were looking for money. The police were informed but could not respond because they had no vehicles available. Rural support units were in the meantime activated to assist in the search for the suspected dangerous criminals.

Members of the Kromhoek Pax community earlier arrested two of the four suspected robbers and handed them to the police at Mara. Two others fled, after shooting wildly at the store owner and at members of the community.

Mr Japie van der Goot, a member of the organized rural support unit at Vivo, had a hair-raising experience and a narrow escape on Saturday morning when he stopped at two hitch-hikers along the tarred road, while on the look-out for the two robbers.

“The two pedestrians alongside the road did not fit the description of the two suspects at all. As I stopped to make enquiries, one of them hopped onto the back of the bakkie. As I got out and went to the back of the vehicle, the other seemingly innocent pedestrian suddenly jumped and grabbed me. We fell to the ground,” Mr Van der Goot said.

The attacker desperately tried to get hold of Mr van der Goot’s fire-arm which was still in the holster, whilst shouting to his companion “Shoot the boer!”

The armed assailant jumped from the bakkie and fired sev-eral shots at close range at Mr Van der Goot.

“I fell on the tarred road and rolled, trying to get the attacker between me and his armed accomplice. He followed and kept on shooting. He must have fired some five to eight shots at me from a distance of two to four metres.”

Miraculously, all these shots missed their target.

“Several shots just grazed my arm and body, leaving superficial burn scars, but none of them really wounded me,” Mr Van der Goot said.

The armed assault on Mr Van der Goot only ended when another member of the Support Unit, Mr Steven Otto, arrived at the scene, driving his vehicle in between Mr Van der Goot and his armed assailant. Several shots were exchanged while the two trigger-happy suspects disappeared into the veld.

The area was cordoned off. Tracks showed that the two later split up in different directions. One of them allegedly later confronted and attacked farm workers with a panga on a nearby farm, where fierce fighting between the robber and farm workers ensued. The other one ambushed searchers by hiding under a bush close to a cattle fence. He opened fire on them as they were approaching the fence. They took cover and returned his fire. The suspect died in the skirmish.

According to police spokesperson Capt Mashudu Malelo the two deceased were from Seshego and were on the run from the police after they had committed armed robbery. He said two of their accomplices were arrested earlier and a white Mazda 323 vehicle was also confiscated.

He confirmed that an unlicensed Z88-pistol with its serial number filed off was found in the possession of one of the deceased.

According to a news release by Capt Malelo, on behalf of the Area Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner Masipha Joseph Maepa, the police at Mara have opened an attempted murder and two murder case dockets following the incident. The official police version of the incident is that two males from Seshego entered a farm illegally and the farm owner saw their tracks and followed them, suspecting them to be poachers. When he saw them, they started firing at him and one bullet hit him in the elbow.

“It was then that he went back and mobilized other nearby farmers,” says the police report.

According to the official police media release the farmers located the suspects in the bush on the same farm and when trying to apprehend them, they opened fire against the farmers, who returned fire.

“Then the suspects were shot dead at the scene,” states the media release by the communication and liaison service of the police in the Vhembe Area.

In another development, serious concern has been raised over a SABC news report, also attributed to the police, in which “a group of farmers” is implicated in “the murder of two men in the Mara area”.