Man shot dead in robbery

A 43-year-old man has been shot dead in a robbery in Kameeldrift outside Pretoria.

Two robbers had broken into the house at around 3.30am on Tuesday.

"The husband heard them and tried to push closed the bedroom door. They couldn't open it and they shot him through the door," said Maleka.

"He was shot several times in the stomach."
She said the couple had been tied up and the robbers had demanded firearms and jewellery, and asked where the safe was.

"They... fled with a laptop computer, cellphones and the couple's bakkie."

Beeld newspaper reported that the victim, Renier Lamprecht, had died an hour after he was shot.

It said it was the second time he had been shot in a robbery. Three years ago he had been robbed on his smallholding in Rustenburg, and shot three times in the stomach.

The paper added that the Kameeldrift community suffered heavily from serious and violent crime.

In March 2008, a 38-year-old man, Marius van Greunen, was killed in a robbery. In May 2008, Adriaan Steenberg, 45, was murdered. In the same month there were more than 14 armed robberies.

In October 2008, robbers killed Rudi Roach, 50, for a cellphone and a couple of beers. In the same month a woman and her daughter were robbed and a 16-year-old girl was raped during a separate robbery.

In February this year, Renier Boshoff, 67, was shot dead in front of his wife. In August, a 55-year-old woman, Essie Ferreira, was robbed and earlier in December a 41-year-old woman was raped in her house.

'Oh God, not again'

Pretoria - "Oh God, not again," said Renier Lamprecht on Tuesday when he realised he'd been shot during a house robbery for the second time in three years.

He died an hour later.

His partner, Hannelie du Toit, 39, was with him in their bedroom when four men broke into the couple's house on a smallholding in Pumulani in the Kameeldrift area, north east of Pretoria.

Du Toit only realised Lamprecht , 43, had been shot when she saw the bed was soaked in blood.

Lamprecht was hit in the torso. A tearful Du Toit told how Lamprecht had seen four men in the living room when he got up to use the bathroom at about 03:30.

"His screaming woke me up.

"I jumped up and helped him close the door. Then I heard the shot."

While Lamprecht and Du Toit were trying to keep the door closed, the robbers fired a shot through the door. Then Lamprecht stood back and the robbers came into the room.

Lamprecht and Du Toit were forced onto their bed, where their hands and feet where tied.

The robbers repeatedly asked them for firearms, a safe and jewellery, but they had nothing. Eventually the robbers fled with Lamprecht's bakkie, three cellphones, a laptop and Du Toit's handbag.

"Renier turned around and realised he'd been shot. He just said: 'Oh God, not again'," Du Toit said.

When Du Toit heard the robbers driving off, she loosened the cellphone charger cables around her wrists with her teeth and hopped to the kitchen where she could cut off the tie and shoelaces around her ankles.

She went back to the room to cut Lamprecht's restraints before going to the neighbours to look for help.

Du Toit was still at the neighbours' house when the paramedics came to tell her they'd done everything they could, but unfortunately were unable to save him.

"I went home just to say 'bye'," she said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

In the previous incident, about three years ago, Lamprecht had been alone in a house on a smallholding outside Rustenburg when two robbers broke in.

They robbed him and shot him in the stomach three times. - Beeld