For years, it was hard for former local professional boxer Ntshengedzeni “Huggerboy” Netshivhera to believe that walking alone in the streets of Thohoyandou during the night is extremely dangerous. And now he has learnt it, but the hard way.

It happened last Saturday evening while Netshivhera was on his way back home from a Musangwe boxing tournament, which was staged at the Makonde Stadium. According to him, the car in which he was traveling dropped him at the shopping complex opposite the Khoroni Hotel at about 20:00.

He then decided to walk to his home in Thohoyandou P East. According to Netshivhera, when he arrived at the parking area behind the old Shoprite store, two young men emerged from the darkness just behind him.

One of them called Netshivhera, pretending that he wanted to ask him something. Netshivhera stopped at a distance and one of the men came running, while the other one was walking behind. On arrival, the man asked Netshivhera his name and where he was coming from. Before he could finish responding to the questions, the man grabbed him by the belt of his trousers and started searching him all over.

When he discovered that Netshivhera had R200 cash in his possession, the man asked him why a good-looking man like him kept such a small amount of cash. At that stage, the other man was standing nearby. Suddenly, the other man joined his friend in searching the lone Netshivhera. Apart from cash, they also robbed him of a bag containing some groceries and cosmetics.

As if that was not enough, one man started taunting Netshivhera, while the other one was still holding him by the belt of his trousers. Finally, Netshivhera felt that enough was enough and he retaliated by giving the man who was holding him a smack. What followed thereafter was a hot fist fight between Netshivhera and the two men. When Netshivhera saw the lights of a car in the next street, he immediately left the place and ran to the street to request assistance from the driver.

Fortunately the driver of the car was an off-duty police officer. The two went back to the scene where the two men where still picking up some groceries which were scattered on the ground. Netshivhera and the police officer chased them and caught one of them. They then called the police and moments thereafter, a police van arrived at the scene. The man was taken to the police station.

Netshivhera opened a case of robbery and the suspect was still to appear in the Thohoyandou Magistrate’s court at the time of going to press.