A mother whose two children were shot by a robber five days ago at Olievenhoutbosch township is afraid to return to the rented room where the traumatic incident occurred.
Nozuko Ngondeka described how a tranquil night on Wednesday, turned to sheer terror when a gun-wielding intruder stormed into her rented back room as she and the children slept.
“I heard footsteps in the early hours of the morning and thought it was perhaps our neighbours,” she said.
Instead, it was an armed robbery by a man holding a torch. He allegedly took a laptop, went to where her daughter was asleep and pulled back the blanket. Ngondeka and the child screamed and the intruder opened fire, hitting the girl twice.
“I was screaming, my daughter started screaming also and he told us to keep quiet,” she told TimesLIVE.
Before leaving, he demanded a cellphone. “He took the bag and I told him I don’t have a cellphone. That’s when he shot my son, 9, in the leg before he fled,” she said.
Neighbours came out and called the police. “At that time my daughter was lying down with my son crying and bleeding. They told me that an ambulance doesn’t get inside the area. One of the neighbours drove us to Laudium health community centre,” said the sobbing mother.
An ambulance then transported them to Kalafong Hospital. “They took my daughter to theatre and told me that she was hit with two bullets.”
The child was transferred to Steve Biko Academic Hospital on Thursday.
The unemployed mother slept at a friend's place with her son when he was discharged from hospital during the week.
“I am on my way to see my daughter at the hospital. I don’t think I will ever move back there I only moved to this side last month,” she said.
Ngondeka was retrenched from her job in 2014 and has been struggling to make ends meet. She initially purchased a taxi, using her retrenchment package to transport school pupils in Centurion but the vehicle broke down within a few months.
She subsequently used her Toyota Yaris to transport children but when that did not work out she struggled to pay rent in Centurion and then moved to Olievenhoutbosch.
Ngondeka has been doing odd jobs to continue taking her children to school.
Yoliswa Vuso from Centurion said the community was crowdfunding to assist the mother. “She can’t go back to where she was renting and her children are learning [elsewhere]. We want to help her with accommodation,” she said.
Olievenhoutbosch police spokesperson Sgt Pretty Mokadi confirmed the incident.
She said the mother woke up to a noise outside her rented room. As she was about to switch on a light a window was broken. An unknown man entered and shot at the bed.
“Two children were sleeping, one was injured on the abdomen and the other on the leg. He demanded cellphones and cash and also took a laptop and fled. The suspect is not [yet] arrested,” she said.
TimesLIVE
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