Afrikaner Gerhard Fourie 68, shot dead on Hartswater North Cape smallholding: nothing robbed from the owner of SA Ground-Nut Marketing, Hopetown
06 Feb 2014 — Gerhard Fourie, 68, was shot dead on February 5 2014 by at least two black gunmen outside his homestead in Hartswater, North Cape. Nothing was ‘robbed’ during the attack at the agricultural hamlet (population 10,200). Mr Fourie was the owner of the SA Ground-Nut Marketing, a peanut-sorting company at Hopetown, (population 10,000).
Maranda van Zyl, a family-friend who spent the night with the Fourie family, said an overwhelming feeling of helplessness and confusion overcame her when she saw a friend being shot dead outside his homestead – and then bleeding out.
He was shot in the groin. Mrs Van Zyl said she woke up from a noise around 01h00am, snuck a peek through the curtain and saw someone standing in front of the window,
The house-guest quietly walked to the Fourie couple’s bedroom and told Gerhard and his wife Annetjie that she had seen a person outside.
“He went to get his rifle and went to my room to take a look. He noticed people at the window cutting through the burglar bars’.
Maranda advised him to first fire a warning shot before going outside, but Fourie went out of the house.”He disappeared into the dark and I heard an exchange of words. He spoke to them. Then the shots went off. They fired and so did he.He came running back into the homestead and I realized he’d been shot. I helped him into the house and locked the door.
” I felt terribly helpless and realized there was nothing I could do. I was confused and I had no emergency training. The adrenaline takes over, everything happens automatically. You see blood and know you have to do something’.
Mr Fourie’s son-in-law, Glenn Murdock, tried to apply pressure to the groin-wound while I phoned the SAPS and the doctor.
We all simulataneously were trying to stop the wound from bleeding out. There was so much blood.’When the doctor arrived he could not find a pulse-beat except just a slight flicker, once. The doctor said basically he was brain-dead. He was shot in the left-groin.It was also found that a lock on the gate to the rear of the smallholding also was cut through.
Mr Fourie also farmed with pecan-nuts as a hobby. Van Zyl said he was a ‘very good and caring person but also could be fierce.’He was honest and fair and looked after his workers well’.
Mr Fourie leaves his wife Annetjie, and three daughters, Alta Schwerdtfeger of Louis Trichardt, Anneline Burger of Pietersburg and Christine Murdock of Pretoria. The couple lived alone on the Hartswater smallholding. Annetjie is an arthritis-sufferer and needs a wheelchair to get around in. She reportedly is always home. SAPS lt. Andrea Cloete said the police were still searching for the two suspects. The men ran away after the shooting.Nothing was stolen in the attack, she confirmed.
BACKGROUND
The Fourie murder occurred at the height several days of protests in the area’s black township of Pudumong – with residents burning tyres, throwing stones and blocking the road, demanding a tarmac road. On September 6, 2014, a road between Vryburg and Hartswater was closed after the local community members took to the streets their protesting against poor service delivery. The towns of Pudumong, Matlapaneng and other neighbouring areas were picketing on the N18 and barricaded the road with tree branches and burning tyres, it was reported on February 6 2014.
The community said they want ….
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