Afrikaner businessman Johan Askevold arrested for 'attempted murder' after he shot and injured Lesotho herdsman Malefetsane Mokhosi to stop him from killing Hobhouse resident Sampie van Rooyen. Hobhouse, an agricultural town near the Lesotho border, is being plagued by foreign herdsmen who drive their livestock into town and have the animals graze on local erven. Police have ignored complaints from the local taxpayers about the increasingly threatening behaviour by the herdsmen in an apparent cross-border territorial dispute...
-----------------
Hobhouse,Free State -- December 4 2014 Hobhouse businessman Johan Askevold had fired off two warning shots before injuring him in the leg while Mokhosi was threatening to kill local resident Sampie van Rooyen...
Mr Askevold was arrested after he had fired two warning shots before shooting cattleherder Malefetsane Mokhosi in the leg on Saturday.
He was held over the weekend in the police cells of Hobhouse magistrate's court and released on R5,000 bail.
The businessman 's wife said the herdsman has caused a great deal of trouble in Hobhouse for many months, allowing his cattle to graze on the lawns of local residents and becoming increasingly violent whenever people objected to the animals in town.
The matter came to a head on Saturday when Mokhosi had threatened to kill local resident Sampie van Rooyen with a rock and a fighting stick ('kierie") after Van Rooyen had asked him to move the cattle.
Onlookings said Mokhosi became threatening and violent and threatened to 'hurt the Van Rooyen family and damage his shop". The man had picked up a rock and was threatening Van Rooyen with his fighting stick."We all have a terrible problem with people coming into town and allowing their livestock to graze here. In a previous incident Sampie also was threatened when Van Rooyen had asked the herders to remove their livestock from town."
When he saw the threatening behaviour by Mokhosi, neighbouring businessman Johan Askevold tried to carry out a citizen's arrest and chased Mokhosi, firing two warning shots which did not hit him and warning the Lesotho citizen to stop running.
The man ignored the warnings and kept running, so Askevold shot and injured Mokhosi in the leg to get him to stop assaulting Mr Van Rooyen.
At Saturday's confrontation it had been Van Rooyen who had first tried to take Mokhosi to the police station so that he could lodge a formal complaint that the Lesotho citizen had threatened him and his family.
Mr and Mrs Askevold saw Van Rooyen chase Mokhosi, knew what it was about and Askevold jumped from his bakkie to help capture Mokhosi.
Mokhosi 'took in a threatening stance' towards both men and had apparently picked up a rock and was threatening them with the kierie.
Mrs Askevold said that the police had been ignoring Van Rooyen's calls to the police station while he was trying to capture Mokhosi."The police only showed up after Mokhosi was injured,' she said. "Do we have to keep looking away from crime, or must we stand up against is. We are paying the price for daring to stand up but
even so we are prepared to fight for our rights, said Mrs Askevold.
Police spokesman sergeant Martin xuma said he will 'investigate with the relevant police members about the complaints made by Mr Van Rooyen at the police station and what their reaction had been".
Meanwhile it is Askevold who is facing trial for attempted murder...
https://m.facebook.com/707081519378868/photos/a.707155602704793.1073741828.707081519378868/741465765940443/?type=1&source=46&fs=5![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧