A soldier of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) got in to major trouble after he had fired at a farmer from Northern Transvaal.
The soldier was arrested on a charge of attempted murder.
Mr. Peter Nicholson, of the farm Alicedale outside Messina said he heard gunshots in the area and went to find out what was going on.
About 3 km further, he heard a scream and a light shone in his direction about 500 meters away.
He tried driving closer and realized he hit something on the road that burst all four of his vehicle’s tires. He later saw it was a spiked chain presumably thrown there by the Army, but initially thought that it could have been a farm attack.
He said the gunshots that engulfed the scene convinced him that it was an attack.
With punctures tires he managed to reached the neighbor’s homestead where police were called who responded within minutes to the scene.
Police went back to the site where they found the army soldiers. They said that they were looking for a cigarette smuggler and thought that the farmer was the suspect.
They admitted that they fired at him before making sure of the situation.
Expert’s probing questions remained unanswered. They want to know how can they shoot at someone who was not identified and why did they put up spikes on a public road?
COL. Ronel Otto, police spokesperson in the Northern Transvaal has confirmed that a member of the military was arrested for the shooting.
Security experts believe that the soldier should be declared incapable of handling a firearm.
Source – Die Vryburger
South Africa Today – South Africa News
