On Saturday morning, August 9, a band of reckless and armed criminals on a spree of violent attacks, targeted not only Williams and Mackenzie on the Uniondale Road, but also another individual mountain-biker, David Porrill. Soon afterwards, two of the thugs also robbed and stabbed Thomas Sithole (36) in Nekkies, while their cronies were busy changing the number plates of their stolen vehicle.
Thanks to the community of Nekkies and the quick response of the SAPS, two of the suspects, Simphiwe Leatose (25) and Masixole Pityana, were apprehended soon after one had pulled a knife on Sithole and members of the Nekkies community had started to beat the thug off him. The suspects, both believed to be from George, appeared in the Knysna Magistrate's Court on charges of attempted murder, aggravated robbery and possession of stolen property on Tuesday, August 12.
According to Knysna Police the blue Ford Bantam bakkie used in the attacks had been reported stolen in Thembalethu, George earlier this month.
Just after 10:00 that morning, Johan Kapp of Allsound Security was alerted by the control room that an emergency call had been received, but that the reception was so bad that the control operator could establish that it related to a robbery, but not the exact location of the incident.
"Our control room could only hear the last part, which was something like '...dale', so we weren't sure whether it might have been Rheenendal. Fortunately, the cyclists moved to higher ground and made another call from which we could determine they had been attacked and robbed out in the forest on the Kom-se-Pad route," says Kapp, who rushed off in his private vehicle to assist the men.
Williams, his wife and their friend Mackenzie, all avid mountain-bikers, were along the Uniondale Road at around 08:30 on that Saturday morning, cycling a 50km route which would usually take them three hours to complete. The men remained together as Williams' wife cycled ahead.
"I"m just so incredibly grateful that my wife is a stronger and fitter mountain-biker than me, because I don't even want to think how different the whole situation could have gone down if she had remained with us at the time of the incident," says Williams.
Close to the start of the Diepwalle Forest the men heard a vehicle coming from behind. It then came to a skidding halt a few meters in front of them.
"Stop! We want to ask you something!" someone shouted from the vehicle.
Alert, the two men noticed the smashed windscreen and asked what the men wanted. There were two neatly dressed black/coloured men in the front and another three men on the back. The cyclists decided to move on as the occupants of the bakkie could not give a reason why they wanted them to stop. They had only gone a little way, when they heard heard the bakkie revving toward them again. Once again the Ford Bantam overtook them, this time cutting across the road in front of them. Williams decided to pass behind the vehicle while Mackenzie passed on the opposite side.
"At the last moment, I looked behind me to see whether they were going to hit us as they were all screaming, 'You cannot ride away!'" recalls a surprisingly calm Williams. "After I passed behind them, the bakkie began chasing me and swerved right into me."
Immediately, all the attackers jumped out, three going for Williams, who had crashed along the side of the road, and two for Mackenzie, who had come to a halt as soon as he noticed his friend being run off the road.
"You wait here! We are first going to shoot your friend and then we are going to shoot you," one of the attackers told Mackenzie, as the two groups ordered the men to give them everything they had. They didn't want to believe that Williams did not cycle with a cellphone on him and continued threatening the cyclists' lives.
"What happens if a car comes around the bend?" Mackenzie urged his attackers, at which time the group got back into the bakkie with their loot, having taken both bicycles and personal belongings, including the men's cycling shirts.
"They asked me where the township was, which I thought was an odd question as they had obviously just come from the direction of Nekkies. My mind was racing, knowing that my wife was further down the road. It was such a huge sense of relief when they turned around and went back in the direction of Knysna," sighs Williams.
On their way back, the men encountered another lone cyclist, Porrill, whom they also confronted and tried to flag down. He immediately realised that their intentions were suspect as he noticed the two mountain-bikes on the back of the bakkie.
"I carried on riding while they were shouting at me to stop; I knew there was a single track back down in the direction from where I had just come, so I quickly turned around and sped off as fast as I could."
Although this did give Porrill some headway, the bakkie soon caught up with him and rammed right into him from behind, sending him flying.
"If the bakkie had been higher, they could have broken my back," he says.
Strip-searching him, like they had just done with the other two cyclists, the thugs discovered that he had a banking card on him and demanded his PIN.
"I just rattled off any number while they kept urging the one with the gun to just shoot me. I could clearly see the handle of the weapon tucked into the front of his pants as he was leaning forward and threatening me." The gang of criminals left without the bicycle as it had been too badly damaged.
Some time later in the same day, two of the five attacked Sithole as he was talking on his phone close to the Church of Christ in Nekkies. Sithole called out for help and one of his friends came to his aid. In the meantime, eyewitnesses noticed the blue Ford Bantam bakkie parked higher up the street where the remaining three guys were putting Eastern Cape number plates onto the vehicle. As people began to come out of their homes to see what the commotion was about, the bakkie sped off. The attacker who had stabbed Sithole ran off as the crowd began beating the remaining criminal. They called the Knysna Police and an ambulance.
"When the police showed up, this bakkie was driving up and down. We all saw it. We could clearly see there were two bikes in the back, a kettle and a bag," explains an eyewitness, who adds that the residents pointed out the bakkie to the police.
According to Sergeant Chris Spies Knysna Police media liaison, members of the Knysna Detective Branch, Visible Policing and the Tsitsikamma Dog Unit responded and found the bakkie hidden in a concealed road. "Two suspects jumped out of the vehicle and fled. The police chased them down and arrested them. The police searched the vehicle and found one of the stolen bicycles and other items, including personal belongings of the victims."
Williams' Scott Scale 10 mountain-bike with a black, white and yellow frame is still missing. Anyone with information can contact him on 044 382 5140.
Williams and Mackenzie expressed their gratitude to Kapp who had moved some distance out of Allsound's area to personally pick them up and take them home. They also thanked the young brown couple who had kindly alerted the female cyclist up ahead of what had taken place. "The police and all who have been involved have been fantastic and we are impressed that they caught two of them so quickly. We want these guys behind bars," agreed the cyclists, who have for many years enjoyed the Uniondale Road.
"After we emerged from the forest again, we just took a look at each other and decided to laugh about it and take it in our stride. We had kept calm and had acted as if we had been trained. Criminals will never beat people of integrity. That is why South Africans stand out everywhere as survivors," smiles Mackenzie.
Three suspects are still at large. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Knysna Police Station at 044 302 6608 or 044 302 6609 immediately.
Thomas Sithole, the fourth person attacked by a gang of thugs, shows the deep cut on his arm. He was robbed of his cellphone and wallet in full view of the Nekkies community who then came to his assistance. Photo: Boniswa Zwayena.
These police officers were involved in the successful apprehension of two suspects who were allegedly involved in a spree of violence on Saturday, August 9. They are (in front, from left) Constable Elager Pietersen, Sergeant Pierre Herwel and Sergeant Jeffrey Johanneson. Behind them are Constable Warren Ackerman, detective-Constable Waldo Olivier, Constable Benjamin Phambani and Sergeant Virgil Cornelius.
ARTICLE: ANOESCHKA VON MECK, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST
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