A farmer and businessman from Ficksburg was arrested by 20 heavily armed police officers after a warning shot was fired by the farmer when two men allegedly attacked his house and threatened to kill his family.
The two men also pushed and threw his 18-year-old mentally disabled daughter to the ground.
Prieur du Plessis (46) a father of two mentally handicapped children, fired a warning shot on Monday afternoon when a father and son armed with a club and a machete allegedly stormed him. He was later arrested when the men filed a charge of attempted murder against him.
Du Plessis’s attorney, Jonker Botha already arranged bail on Tuesday night at the Ficksburg police station but the police did not want to release him. He was only released the next day on bail of R500 after he appeared in court on lesser charges of negligent discharge of a firearm and reckless endangering of a person.
Botha said on Wednesday his client intends to make a civil claim against the police for being wrongfully detained.
Du Plessis was in an argument with people renting his house because he confronted them for not paying rent. He asked them to leave his property on his farm, Brooklyn.
The men smashed his windows and shouted they would kill his children and family.
He grabbed his gun and fired a warning shot when the men stormed him. The bullet hit the back window of the men’s car.
“I decided the next morning to report the incident. I never wanted to shoot those men.”
“If I wanted to shoot them, I could but I wanted to scare them off. I had to do something and thought if I shot out their window, they would flee.”
Capt. Phumelelo Dhlamini police spokesman said, Du Plessis was not released on bail on Tuesday because the investigating officer was still busy with the investigation.
He confirmed that Du Plessis filed complaints of intimidation, assault and malicious damage to property against the two men and said that the men were arrested on Wednesday. The men 50 and 30 years old respectively, were released the same day on a warning and will appear in court on Thursday.
Phaladi Shuping, spokesperson of the NPA in the Free State, said the charge of attempted murder against Du Plessis was changed after the prosecutor read the file and decided that it would be difficult to prove.
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