Waldi and Cynthia van Zyl were assaulted and tied up by a group of men who gained access to their home in Skitskop, Bronkhorstspruit on Sunday evening.
By
A Bronkhorstspruit man and his wife are fighting for their lives after they were attacked on their smallholding.
Waldi and Cynthia van Zyl were assaulted and tied up by a group of men who gained access to their home in Skitskop on Sunday evening.
Family spokesperson Vasti Mills said the 64-year-old man who was busy in his workshop, was overpowered by six men who assaulted him, demanding money.
“One of the men had a handgun with him, which he pointed at him,” she said.
“They used some of the tools in his workshop as weapons to assault him.
“When his 53-year-old wife Cynthia heard the commotion, she went to investigate and she too was taken into the work shop and assaulted.”
Mills said the men used a grinder to cut Waldi’s leg, snapping some of his arteries.
“Cynthia’s nose was pinched in a vice grip and twisted as they requested a large sum of money they thought the couple had.”
The pair were tied up while the robbers ransacked the house and found the safe and took jewellery and two firearms. “Two flat screen TVs, cellphones and other valuables were loaded into Waldi’s Toyota Hilux bakkie in which the attackers fled towards the R104 road.
“The couple’s son arrived home after his mother had untied herself and ran to get help,” Mills said. “The SAPS, ambulance service and community were called and responded quickly.”
Waldi was airlifted to a hospital in Johannesburg, while Cynthia was taken by ambulance a hospital in Witbank.
Mills said the couple suffered “terrible injuries”, with Waldi’s being life threatening. “He sustained skull and facial fractures.
He is going into theatre soon. “Cynthia is undergoing brain scans.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the traumatised and injured couple and their loved ones.”
The police’s Captain Mavela Masondo was yet to respond to Rekord’s enquiry at the time of publication.
Do you have more information about the story?
VIEW THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Rekord East.co.za
