Braam Blignaut.
The actual attack happened four years ago, and the farmer had been paralyzed ever since.
His passing was basically an act of mercy.
Braam Blignaut (35), who was attacked on his farm in the Buffelsfontein area, North West province, early on Friday morning July 10, 2015 has sadly passed away on the morning of 5 October 2019. Lezelle Slabberts Kloppers said on social media “God knew that Braam’s suffering was too great”. Blignaut, a father of four and his family were viciously attacked and he was shot three times in the chest and left paralysed.
Two attackers had waited for Blignaut outside his house when he had rushed home from work after his wife had called for assistance. On his arrival they pointed a gun at him and forced him into the house where they tied his hands, they then ripped his wife Izulda out of bed and tied her hands.
Three of the couple’s four children, respectively two, four, seven and 10 years old, woke up during the chaos. They were all detained for about an hour in the TV room while the men searched the house for valuables.
Blignaut could understand the men’s language, as he works at the mine. He could hear the men tell one another that they would rape Izulda. He managed to untie himself and told Izulda in Afrikaans to run out the back door to call for help from the neighbors whom they rented the house from.
Izulda, with her hands still tied ran outside. Blignaut got hold of a machete that was on the wall as decoration, and hid behind a wall in the kitchen waiting for the attackers. Both attackers chased Izulda. Blignaut then struck one of them in the face with the machete at the kitchen door. The attacker, however, returned and fired shots in front of the children. Blignaut was shot three times in the chest.