Johannesburg - With three bullets in his body, a seriously wounded 65-year-old man had to crawl to his neighbour for help, after being attacked and robbed on his smallholding at Beckedan in Tarlton on the West Rand.

Roger Seamons was attacked and overwhelmed by three armed men shortly after 05:30 in the bathroom of his smallholding home.

His wife, Faye, had driven off to work shortly before the gang attacked.

His wife said on Tuesday: "I've no idea how they gained access to the house.

"Usually, when I go to work, my husband goes to wash in the basin in our bathroom. He was doing this as usual this morning when he was surprised by at least three men."

She said the robbers - all armed - stood in the bedroom door adjoining the bathroom.

"My husband said the men were suddenly in the bathroom doorway and began shooting at him."

Wasn't a threat to him

He was hit three times - in the right elbow, left foot and right thigh.

His wife said: "He's an old man who wasn't a threat to them at all.

"If they'd knocked him over, he mightn't have been able to get up again. It wasn't necessary to hurt him so badly."

She had rushed at once to Krugersdorp Private Hospital when her neighbour phoned her with the news that her husband had been shot.

"It's dreadful. He must have crawled, injured and bleeding, for more than a kilometre to get help," she wept.

"He eventually reached the neighbour, who rushed him to hospital."

Inspector Karen Jacobs said police were searching for the robbers.

"It seems that robbery was the motive for the attack, because jewellery and a cellphone are missing from the house," she said.

"His (Seamons's) condition is still serious, but he seems to be out of danger."

The victim of a unprovoked attack lay in hospital struggling to breathe, and all she and her daughter had wanted was to enjoy a night out together.

Joe Samuel, of Carletonville, was painfully gasping for breath on Monday, racked with pain from injuries sustained on Sunday when an unknown man smashed her car's windscreen with a rock while she and her daughter were travelling on the N12.

Samuel and Charmaine Kruger, her daughter, had decided to go out for supper on Sunday evening.

When they reached Westonaria at about 10.30pm, a man hurled a rock at the car, shattering the windscreen and striking Samuel on the chest, causing serious injuries.

'It's heartbreaking to see my mom suffering like this'
Kruger made a U-turn and drove to the Westonaria police station, where she reported the matter.

A visibly shaken Kruger said: "I saw a man wearing a white T-shirt and white shorts. Seconds later, a rock hit my mom.

"She started screaming, and the windscreen was broken. My mother was moaning terribly. She screamed: 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe'."

Samuel was taken to Sir Albert Private Hospital in Randfontein, where she was said to be in a critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit.

When The Star visited the hospital on Monday, Samuel was grimacing in pain, barely able to talk.

"It's bad... the pain is too much," was all she could say. Still on oxygen, the 58-year-old kept pointing at her injured chest.

Kruger said the incident had traumatised the family.

"The family are taking it quite hard. It's difficult because we don't know why we were attacked - it just happened out of the blue," she said, adding that the family had been due to go on a holiday at the weekend.

"We had planned a trip to Durban to be with my brother, who is coming home from America. Our joy has turned into sadness," Kruger said.

"This is terrible. It is heartbreaking to see mom suffering like this.

"I am not sure how long it's going to take her to get better. The attack was unnecessary, and I am still confused," Kruger added.

West Rand police Superintendent Milica Bezuidenhout confirmed the incident and said Westonaria police were investigating.

The attacker was still at large.

'Give us the money we know you have'
13/01/2006 10:31 - (SA)

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Bheki Mbanjwa, The Witness

"Bitches with cars are loaded, you will die if you don't give us the money we know you have."

These were chilling words from hijackers' that continue to haunt Witness reporter Sne Makhanya and her friend, Sthe Ndlovu, who are lucky to be alive after being hijacked at gunpoint, abducted then forced to strip naked before being dumped in an unknown place on Tuesday.

Makhanya, who had left her car at home on the day, was picked up by Ndlovu at The Witness office premises in Durban. The whole ordeal began just before 21:00 when the two arrived at Makhanya's home in Umlazi.

"As we stopped the car, three armed gunmen just appeared out of nowhere, hijacked us in front of my mother who was helplessly looking," she said.

The hijackers then drove away with both Makhanya and Ndlovu. Makhanya said the men became violent in the car and assaulted both of them. "They continuously hit us with guns asking for cellphones, jewellery, bank cards, money and when we told them we didn't have much and gave them what we had, they got angry they didn't believe we didn't have more than we had."

They then drove out of the Umlazi area into a dark, deserted, paved, winding road that could be a short cut route to Lamontville township.

"When we arrived at the end of the road, they ordered us to take off our clothes until we were completely naked and ordered us to run into the bushes while they fired shots in the air. We ran for dear life, took completely different directions but, we heard the car drive off and went back to where the car had stopped," she said.

Naked and weeping in the rain, the two women walked "a long distance" until they came to a house and asked for old clothes from a man who gave them pieces of cloth.

"We then walked about 11km to get to the nearest petrol filling station where they helped us make phonecalls."

Makhanya said that co-operating with the hijackers and keeping silent are the two things that spared their lives from the hijackers.

"There were times when it was just quiet in the car and they would ask if we want to die and would answer, no."

Hijacking, according to provincial police spokesperson Director Bala Naidoo, is the least prominent crime in KwaZulu-Natal but "it carries the worst consequences physically and emotionally. There's just too much trauma involved".

Makhanya said she was still traumatised by the whole incident.

"I'm still having difficulty shutting my eyes because I can't stop playing the ordeal over again in my mind. I wouldn't wish something like this for anybody, not even a worst enemy." Her friend is said to be "angry at the way it happened".

The car, an Opel Corsa fitted with a tracking device, was recovered abandoned just outside Umlazi within about 40 minutes from the time of the call to a car tracking company. No suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Sons see dad shot six times
11/01/2006 22:47 - (SA)

Robin O'Brien, who was shot six times in an attack, and his wife, Tracy, with their two sons, Ethan, left, and Sebastian.

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Pieter Jordaan , Beeld

Johannesburg - "Why did they throw firecrackers at daddy?" asked a worried five-year-old shortly after his father had been shot six times in front of him on Saturday night next to Beyers Naudé Drive on the West Rand.

Robin O'Brien, 32, and his wife Tracy, 27, were returning from a children's party in Honeydew with Sebastian and their other son, Ethan, two, to their smallholding in Muldersdrift.

Despite being hit six times and having another three exit wounds, O'Brien is recovering from his ordeal in the high-care unit at a Krugersdorp hospital.

Robin pulled off the road about 21:00 on Beyers Naudé Drive to switch on the car's rain sensors.

"See, they're working now," Robin told Tracy.

The next moment, shots began ringing out.

Tracy said: "The windows exploded, and the shots kept on coming. I vaguely saw the robber's dark figure next to the car."

Son was frozen with fear

She said Robin suddenly looked at her with fear in his eyes and said: "Darling, I've been shot."

She called out to him: "Just put your foot on the accelerator."

"I saw he'd been shot in his arm and put my right hand over the wound while I changed gears with my left hand," said Tracy.

Sebastian sat frozen on the back seat, and the sound of the shots jerked Ethan awake from a deep sleep. Fortunately, the boys were not hit.

Tracy said: "I told Robin to pull over, but he kept on driving to Muldersdrift police station."

At the police station, Tracey jumped out of the car, told her sons to stay with their father and went to get help. Robin tried to get out the car, but fell down.

The police phoned for an ambulance while Tracy tried to put pressure on her husband's wounds.

When Tracy saw her husband's eyes begin to roll back, she said: "Stay with me, I can see the lights of the ambulance!"

But Robin's father and brother-in-law were in the next car that turned in to the station, as Tracy had called them earlier.

Robin's father, Michael O'Brien, said: "We put Robin in the car and Colin (his brother-in-law) rushed him to Krugersdorp Private Hospital.

Heart, both lungs were hit

"Halfway there, they drove past the ambulance."

O'Brien sen said one of the bullets that hit Robin had lodged in his heart and both his lungs also had been hit.

"He had six bullet wounds and another three additional ones where the bullets had come out of his body. Doctors said he would have died if we'd waited any longer."

A Krugersdorp Private Hospital spokesperson confirmed that O'Brien was still in the high-care unit on Wednesday, but said he was making good progress.

Boy's face beaten to a pulp by cellphone thief
11/01/2006 22:47 - (SA)

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Neldie Faure , Beeld

Pretoria - A teenager from Rooihuiskraal in Centurion could be identified only by his hair and hands after his face was beaten to a pulp by a thief who stole his new cellphone.

As other Grade 10s started the new school year on Wednesday, Frans Pelzer, 16, had to undergo surgery to staunch a brain haemorrhage after being assaulted on Monday afternoon about a kilometre from his parent's house.

Only his Christmas present, the cellphone, was stolen.

Frans was still unconscious in the intensive-care unit of Unitas Hospital in Centurion on Wednesday.

Jan Nel, Frans's stepfather, said they started searching for him on Monday evening when he didn't return home.

"We reported him missing at the police station. The police officers showed us a photograph of someone who had been found in the bushes in Rooihuiskraal.

Frans's parents rushed to Pretoria Academic Hospital and identified him just before he was sent for scanning.

Nel said: "We waited for an ambulance and arrived at Unitas Hospital only about 01:30 on Wednesday. They had to stabilise Frans before they could start operating to stop the bleeding."

Nel said all of Frans's facial bones above the jawbone had been broken.

He would have to undergo several operations to repair his sinuses and remove bones from his brain. He also will have to have reconstructive surgery on his face.

Pretoria - The government was implicitly involved in farm attacks, a conference of Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU-SA) heard on Thursday.

"Its involvement lies in its failure to do something," the union's national safety and security committee chairperson Danie du Plessis told conference delegates.

He likened the situation to foreign governments closing their eyes in the 1940s to the Jewish holocaust.

Du Plessis blamed the government's transformation policy for what he described as a slackening of the country's security forces - which he said were loyal to the ruling party and not the general population.

Transformation amounted to lowering the white citizen's position in society and making him submissive to the will of the masses, he said. This also undermined the country's economic prosperity.

The TAU claims a countrywide membership of some 6 000 white commercial farmers.

Crime impacts on farming sector

Du Plessis said a growing crime level spurred on by an inefficient police force, had a huge financial impact on the farming sector.

Stock theft in the year to March 31 amounted to about R230m, and total farming losses due to theft to nearly R750m.

The country's 45 000-odd commercial farmers suffered an average loss of R26 190 in the year due to theft.

Transformation had paved the way for criminal elements and political pressure groups to take aim at commercial farmers and their dependants, du Plessis said.

Deputy chairperson Herman De Wet cited new firearm legislation as an attempt at a "massive disarmament" of the citizenry.

The conference adopted a proposal for amendments to the legislation, which would see existing firearms licences remaining valid until the death of the owner or him being declared unfit.

There should also be no limit to the number of firearms or amount of ammunition a licence-holder was allowed to have, the draft resolution states.

04/01/2006 09:04 - (SA)

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Marietie Louw, Beeld

Makhado - A farmer's wife saved her elderly mother's life on Monday by pulling her inside their house, away from an armed man, but was herself cold-bloodedly shot and killed by the attacker.

Etna van Heerden, 53, of Kromdraai farm on the Ledig road about 3 km from Makhado, Limpopo, died minutes after being shot in the chest.

A still-shocked Ona van Heerden sen, 75, recounted on Tuesday how her daughter and only child had pulled her through the back door into the house, but was herself shot.

"She'd fallen to the floor and I wiped the blood from her mouth.

"I told Dries we must try to lift her up, but she was covered in so much blood that she slipped out of our hands.

"This morning, we had to use a hosepipe to clear the blood from the house."

Ona lives in a flat adjoining the house of her son-in-law and daughter.

Nothing was stolen

The grieving granny said: "One just cannot believe it - they just shoot people dead nowadays."

The killer did not steal a thing from the house. Etna and her husband, Dries, have lived on the fruit farm for the past 10 years.

She worked at Sanlam insurance in Makhado.

Transvaal Agricultural Union SA manager Marie Helm said on Tuesday that farmers were being mowed down in Limpopo.

"It wasn't robbery, they didn't take even a cent, not even a blade of grass," she said.

The drama began on Monday about 19:30 when Ona walked from her flat to the farmhouse for supper.

"I heard the dogs barking furiously. Etna opened the back door and the next moment we heard someone running behind us in the garden," said the mother.

Etna pulled her mother into the house and a shot was fired. Then the attacker began kicking the dogs.

Ona said: "When I looked again, Etna was standing in front of the sink with blood pouring out of her mouth.

"I asked her: 'My child, where did they shoot you?' but she could no longer speak. She just pointed to her chest," she wept.

Dries ran into the kitchen from the front of the house where he had been sitting on the stoep.

He said: "I didn't know what to think. I ran back and tried to open my safe to get a firearm, but couldn't."

He phoned the police.

Grief-stricken Dries stood in front of Monday night's dishes in the kitchen and pointed to the spot where his wife had died.

"We were just about to eat. The chicken and rice were ready, and then this happened."

The couple had been married for 32 years and returned last week from a fortnight's holiday in Mozambique.

'Farm murders are well-planned'

"Etna enjoyed it tremendously and wanted us to go back with friends in April," said Dries.

The couple's 26-year-old daughter, Carien Wasserman, lives in Makhado.

Transvaal Agricultural Union chairperson Dries Joubert said on Tuesday that farm murders were well-planned: "They are carried out violently and cold-bloodedly."

He said information indicated the firearm used to murder Etna might have been stolen during a December farm attack in Levubu.

Girl, 3, forced to watch rape
14/12/2005 22:26 - (SA)

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Durban - A seven-month pregnant woman was raped in front of her three-year-old daughter at her south coast home on Tuesday night.

South coast police on Wednesday reported that the woman and her daughter were asleep when a group of four robbers entered her house at Umgababa.

"Her husband was away at work. She awoke when she felt someone throttling her and demanding cash.

"She suddenly realised that there were four other males in the room and covered her face pretending to sleep," captain Gerald Mfeka explained.

The robbers then began searching the room for valuables.

"They left the room with some of her possessions. Another male who was armed undressed the victim and proceeded to rape her," Mfeka said.

Mfeka said the man also assaulted the child.

The woman and her daughter are receiving trauma counselling.

Dad killed at Xmas tree
14/12/2005 22:26 - (SA)
Eduan Roos , Beeld

Johannesburg - A Midrand man has been shot dead at the family's Christmas tree while his wife and two young sons were tied up and helpless in another room.

Phillip Nash, 47, and his wife, Lynette, and their two sons were overpowered about 23:00 on Tuesday by three armed men.

Inspector Cynthia Kleinhans said the robbers apparently entered through a sliding door.

"They tied up the woman and her two sons in one of the rooms," she said.

"We suspect Nash went to the lounge, where he struggled with one of the attackers and got shot.

"He died moments later."

She said the suspects were armed with pistols and fled with an unknown amount of cash, cellphones and jewellery.

Lynette managed to free herself and the children from the wire with which they had been tied up and went to look for help.

Note

The police were still combing the house on Wednesday for clues that could lead to the arrest of the suspects.

On Wednesday a note to clients at the salon where Lynette worked bore silent witness to the previous night's murder.

"The salon will be closed for a few days as a result of a personal tragedy," read the note on the gate to the house.

"Sorry I didn't call you, but I don't have a phone," it said.

A reliable source said Nash was shot more than once at close range and that his body was found near the Christmas tree.

An emotional Christine Walter, Lynette's sister, said the sons were badly traumatised.

"Phillip was for them like 'a father of the year'," she said.

"It's horrible that the family had to go through this.

"Lynnette managed, probably as a result of adrenalin and shock, to untie herself and the boys and get help." Lynette was too shocked to talk to the media on Wednesday.

"They just want to be left alone to cope with their loss," said Walter.

A neighbour of the Nash family said she had heard an alarm going off, but was too scared to go and look.

"Residents in this area live in fear and alarms go off so often that it is not strange anymore," she said.

Her own home was recently burgled, she said.

Man killed for R90
13/12/2005 22:21 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A 28-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly robbed a 70-year-old man of R90 and then shot him dead, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Tuesday.

Captain Gerald Mfeka said the attack took place outside Chunni Bagwandan's home at Renishaw in Scottburgh on Monday.

Bagwandan was walking to his house when the robber came up from behind him and demanded money, said Mfeka.

The man armed with a pistol robbed Bagwandan of R90, shot him in the chest and fled. He died at the scene.

Mfeka said the robber was arrested shortly afterwards while he was attempting to cross the N2 freeway.

A firearm, six rounds of ammunition and cash were found and confiscated from him

it's sad to think that Audrey's dad is now just another statistic.

By Eleanor Momberg and Tsabeng Nthite

A total of 2 836 people died in the Tshwane area in 2004, a survey into causes of death says.

Of these, 2 266 died of unnatural causes, according to the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System report, released on Wednesday.

The data in the report, which is released annually through Unisa, was obtained from mortuaries in Pretoria and at Medunsa.

The leading manner of death in the capital was transport fatalities, totalling 34 percent of the number of unnatural deaths.

A total of 779 deaths were caused by transport-related accidents, with 738 caused by car accidents. A total of 250 people were killed in pedestrian accidents, 135 were the drivers of cars involved in crashes, and 41 people died on railway lines.

Of the 596 people who died violently, 329 died as a result of firearms and 341 in suicides.

The report said 1 768, or 78,2 percent, of the deaths reported were male, while 492, or 21,8 percent, were female.

A total of 23,2 percent of violent deaths happened between 1am and 5am, followed by between 8pm and 10pm, and 11pm to midnight. Most suicides in the capital happened between 3pm and 5pm, followed by people taking their lives between 1pm and 2pm, and between 8am and 9am.

People usually died in transport-related accidents between 8pm and midnight and from other unintentional injuries between 1pm and 4pm.

Most violent deaths (21,4 percent) were on Sunday, followed by Saturday and then Tuesday, while most suicides happened on a Monday, Sunday or Thursday.

Most transport-related deaths happened over weekends with the highest number of men being killed on a Sunday. Women were most likely to die a transport-related death on a Saturday.

Of the figures, the scene of injury was known in 1 767 of the cases. This revealed that roads were the most common place of death. This was followed by private homes, open land, along railway lines, medical service areas, residential institutes, informal settlements, retail areas, farms and industrial areas.

Deaths also varied by season, the report said, pointing out that most violent deaths happened in December, followed by April and May. Most people committed suicide in October, November and May, while most transport-related deaths happened in July, April and September.

Deaths by unintentional injury mostly happened in December, July and January.

The leading external cause of death (22,4 percent) was firearms, and the average age of people dying of unnatural causes was 33. The report also showed that a baby under the age of one had died as a result of sharp force violence, that one child aged between one and four died as a result of burns, and two others died in shootings.

The average age of people committing suicide was 35.

The report said most children up to the age of 14 committed suicide by hanging or shooting themselves. The same applied to young people up to the age of 24, and people aged between 35 and 44.

Suicides by firearms were most popular in the 25 to 34 age group and for people over the age of 45. Surprising was that 12 people had burnt themselves to death, while 27 people had taken poison.

In terms of the transport-related deaths, most children up to the age of 14 died in pedestrian accidents, while people aged between 20 and 29 were more likely to die as passengers in accidents. A total of 43 cyclists were killed in the city in 2004.

The leading cause for non-transport related deaths of children 14 and younger was burns, followed by drowning. Most of the deaths in the older age groups over 45 were also because of burns, while this was a secondary cause of death among teenagers. Other causes of death were falling from heights over 20m, blunt force injuries, and 11 by poisoning.

Blood alcohol levels were obtained in 1 328 of the 2 266 cases, finding that the average blood alcohol concentration for those who were over the legal limit for driving was 0.16.

Cops crack down in Muldersdrift
21/11/2005 20:01 - (SA)

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Johannesburg - Police are stepping up patrols in the Muldersdrift area west of Johannesburg after the murder of an elderly couple at the weekend.

It was the latest in a spate of violent attacks in the area.

Sylvia Hart, 84, and husband Harold Hart, 88, were found dead on their farm in Muldersdrift on Sunday morning. Both had multiple wounds from an unknown object.

"Police are stepping up patrols in the area," said superintendent Milicia Bezuidenhout.

"The commissioner has re-addressed the Honeydew station commander and he has put in extra steps. Hopefully the police can make a breakthrough."

There has been a series of violent incidents in Muldersdrift in the past year.

A robber was shot dead by the owner of a Muldersdrift smallholding on Monday night, West Rand police said.

In August, the 48-year-old owner of a plot in Muldersdrift shot dead one of his former employees, allegedly part of a gang of robbers trying to rob the smallholding.

Shot in the forehead

In July, two United States filmmakers were shot and wounded by three robbers at a guesthouse in Muldersdrift.

In June, a man survived being shot in the forehead during a house robbery in Muldersdrift.

In April, Ulrich Lange, 81, was murdered on his smallholding in the area.

In May, a Muldersdrift resident, Michael Clarke, put his house on the market after being robbed for the fifth time.

In another incident in Muldersdrift that month, a gang of four robbers shot and injured 65-year-old Chris Klein after overpowering his daughter, Sanet du Plessis, 34, and a friend.

Bezuidenhout said the police had a dedicated task team working with sector policing crime forums.

Many victims know their killers

"We need the community to be involved where we can share information. We need to know what the community problems are in the area," she said.

Bezuidenhout said there had numerous successes in the area.

"I can't say how many people have been arrested. But people who have been known to the victims have been arrested."

Some had been previous employees, she said.

Farmer killed holding his baby
21/11/2005 22:50 - (SA)

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Polokwane - A farmer was shot in cold blood in front of his six-month-old baby daughter and his girlfriend's six-year-old son in one of two farm murders in Limpopo at the weekend.

Billy Meyer, 43, of Lovedale farm in the Mara district near Makhado was shot in the head on Saturday night by a burglar who fled with about R200 and a cellphone.

Shortly before midnight that night, another farmer, John Louis Steyn, 73, was found dead in his house on the Sand River smallholdings between Makhado and Polokwane.

He apparently had been hit on the head with a blunt object and dragged to his kitchen. Only a cellphone was missing.

Meyer's friend, Alida Grobler, 27, told on Monday how Meyer was shot while he was putting their six-month-old baby girl, Christelle, down on the floor.

"She was sitting on her dad's lap and while he was putting her on the floor he was shot," she said.

She was preparing the baby's bottle in the kitchen when the attacker entered through the back door.

Boys started screaming

"At first I thought he was one of our workers, but then I saw the gun in his hand.

"He signalled me to go to the lounge where the children were with Billy.

Her son, Justin, six, from a previous relationship and his brother, Shaun, three, who had been asleep, started screaming hysterically.

"The baby also started crying. I was afraid the man would shoot my children. I told him I would give him anything as long as he didn't shoot."

The attacker demanded money, and Grobler gave him about R200 that she had in her handbag. He also took her cellphone before fleeing.

Grobler's two sons will receive psychological counselling.

"Last night, my three-year-old wanted to know if the robber would return," said Grobler sadly.

300 farmers in hunt for killer

Stephen Fick, Meyer's neighbour, said the shooting was a tragedy.

"He was a tomato farmer and there are tomatoes ready to be harvested. Who will do it now that he's dead?"

About 300 farmers have been searching with the police since Saturday night for the suspect.

Superintendent Ailwei Mushavhanamadi of the Vhembe police said on Monday nobody had been arrested yet for either murder.

Great. And just 3 months after i got rid of my little MG roadster... in exchange for a brand new Rover.
It would've been better to keep the MG.

MG-Rover owners will get a big Christmas present following the news that MG is coming back to South Africa.
Cape Town - MG-Rover owners will get a big Christmas present following the news that MG is coming back to South Africa.

Owners who decided to stick with the brand following the closure of the MG-Rover company in the UK will be pleased to hear that the MG brand - both sedan and two-seater sports car versions - will be coming back to South Africa next year.

China's Nanjing Automobiles Group (NAC) is to re-start production of MG ZT saloons and MG TF sports cars at the Longbridge plant in the UK, and these cars will be rolled out into the South African market.

This means a ready supply of parts, plus the continued service promised, and adhered to, by previous MG-Rover importers Pearl Automotive, a member of the Imperial Motors Group.

Many MG-Rover owners expected to lose money on resale values following the failure of the previous MG-Rover operation in the UK, but this is not expected to happen now as MGs - Rovers are not planned for some time - will come back into the country.

New production line

A statement from Pearl Automotive points to the actions taking place at Longbridge, where 400 former workers have been re-employed to set up a new production line for the MGs, with a further 800 workers to be employed once the line is producing cars.

My sources tell me the moves will impact heavily on the South African operation, which was, until the closure, the biggest importer of MG and Rover cars outside Europe.

Former MG-Rover dealerships in SA which switched over to service only are expected to be re-activated, or new ones set up where, for instance in Cape Town, the dealerships were closed or switched over to other brands within the Imperial stable.

The MG ZT sedans are mechanically almost identical to the Rover 75 models, even to the level of most body panels, which will ensure ready availability of parts.

The statement says: "Pearl Automotive's commitment to protect the brand in South Africa through honouring all warranties and motor plans and also to keep all MG Rover dealers operational from an after sales point of view has put them in a strong position to be re-appointed by NAC as the franchise holders for MG Rover in South Africa.

Warranties

"Pearl Automotive will continue to keep all MG Rover dealers operational and continue to honour warranties and motor plans. This will ensure that the product can be re-launched in South Africa with minimal disruption."

As far as Rover is concerned, Rover 25 and Rover 75 models will be made in China, for local consumption under the Austin brand name, and for export as MGs.

It is likely Pearl will ensure there will a differentiation between the UK-built and Chinese products should the latter hit our shores.

The news comes at a good time for former MG-Rover owners, who will see resale values of their cars climb once the newcomers hit SA markets, as well as for Pearl Automotive and Imperial, which is thought to have lost as much as R20-million in the value of cars in its showrooms, and on the water, when the collapse of the UK firm was announced

The Rover name was bought by Shanghai Automotive, the Chinese company which precipitated the Mg-Rover collapse, and which owns the intellectual property rights.

This company will continue to produce a stretched Rover 75 in the immediate future, but it is expected the impasse over the Rover name will be settled by the Chinese Government, which owns both Chinese motor companies.

MG production at Longbridge is expected to start early next year, with as many as four new models in production by 2007.

South Africa
    Stranded woman killed on N3 near Hammarsdale
        Ingrid Oellermann
        November 14 2005 at 12:06AM

A Pietermaritzburg woman, Makhosi Kunene, 26, was shot dead by a gunman who attacked her and her female companion after their car had broken down on the N3 near Hammarsdale on Friday night.

Superintendent Joshua Gwala said on Sunday that the name of the passenger who survived was being withheld for security reasons. She was a crucial witness in the case, he said.

He said the two women had been travelling from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in an Opel Corsa sedan when the car had apparently experienced a mechanical problem at 10pm and they had had to stop.

Kunene had decided to park near the Peacevale Bridge at Hammarsdale to await the arrival of assistance. While doing so an assailant had allegedly smashed the passenger window, causing the women to jump out and run in different directions.

The passenger had told the police she had hidden herself while the attacker had chased Kunene. The woman had said that while she had been hiding she had heard a gunshot.

After the matter was reported to the police an intensive search was launched for Kunene.
With the help of the police dog unit's K9 search-and-rescue team, Kunene's body was found in a gutter at the side of the N3 about 500m from the car.

She had sustained head injuries which the police believe were caused by a gunshot.

Gwala said nothing appeared to have been stolen. While acknowledging that Kunene and her companion had been left with no other choice because their car had broken down, he said the police frequently urged motorists not to stop on the roads, especially at night or in isolated areas.

A man and his wife were shot in Inanda Road, Durban, recently by three hijackers after the man stopped at the roadside to answer his cellphone.

Anyone with information on Kunene's murder is asked to telephone Inspector Israel Sibiya at 031 736 1191 or Crime Stop at
086 001 0111.