From information now coming to light, it appears that the farm attack yesterday on Martiens (68) and Elsa Richter from the farm Vygeboompoort at Dwaalboom near Thabazimbi was one of the cruelest and cruelest yet in SA. Maroela Media reports that what happened is that the farmhouse’s power was repeatedly knocked out between 8pm and 9pm last Monday. Martiens decided to drive to the power pumps by the river elsewhere on the farm and turn off the pumps before it burned out. However, two attackers waited for him there and hit him over the head with an iron. Martiens’s body was later found after a search inside the river, with his hands and feet tied. It is not certain if he died from the wound to his head and whether he drowned.

After the attack, the suspects drove in Martiens’s bakkie to the farmhouse. Elsa thought it was Martiens returning and went to the kitchen, where the two assailants were waiting for her. They took her to her room, undressed her clothes and pushed her under the shower, aiming to burn her with hot water. However, the geyser was switched off to save electricity, on which the attackers burned Elsa with an iron on her torso and shoulder.

Her hands and feet were later tied, she was kicked and punched and hit with a gun through her face. The attackers found the key to the safe at one point and Martiens’s. 308 chaser gun out and loaded. They pushed the gun against Elsa’s head and said, “We are going to shoot you to death now”. She started praying hard in Afrikaans and called for the help of the Lord. The attackers then threw a blanket over her and tied her into the pick-up truck.

She was unloaded about 4 km further in the field and one of the attackers asked her, “Do you want to see your husband? ” She said yes, please. They left her there and told her if she wasn’t still there when they came back in an hour they were going to kill Martiens. However, the latter was already dead and they just told her so she had to stay in the place. Elsa sat there for about an hour and when she realized they weren’t coming back, she took the blanket and found her way back home, where she called for help over the four-way radio at about 2 a.m.

Later the police noticed the attackers in Warmbad in the stolen pickup truck, but the latter opened fire on the police, who fired back and fatally struck one assailant and injured the second. Both attackers were suspected to be employees on the farm. Elsa is currently being treated at the Mediclinic of Thabazimbi.

The couple has four children, the oldest son of which is in New Zealand.

Words are lacking to properly condemn this barbarism. What is the anc government and the mrk saying about this? Will the latter consider this a case? Will Minister of Police Bheki Cele visit Elsa and offer condolences? What is the reaction of the Boerevolk to this wake-up call?