A man from Grabouw fiercely fights an attacker, who had stabbed him several times, in his home.
Henfré Nel, 50, said he saw a flashing light of a vehicle parked outside the house at about 10 pm on Monday and went out to investigate. He found one of the car’s doors open when a movement caught his eye. A man stood near him.
“I asked ‘what are you looking for?’ and his exact words were, “I’m here to kill you.” With that, he stabbed me in the arm with a knife, ”Nel said.
He returned to the house with his injured arm, where he quickly closed the door and ordered his wife, his mother-in-law, sister-in-law and his six-year-old grandchild to take shelter in a room.
The attacker kicked the burglar bars in one of the bedrooms from the wooden frame. He climbed into the house and a fight ensued between Nel and the man. Nel was stabbed again several times with a knife. At one point he took the knife away from the man, after which he bit him, Nel said.
According to Nel, he is uncertain whether he might have lost consciousness at some point. The man appears to have emptied several wallets. Nel can only remember seeing the person taking a cellphone and a purse in the living room, after which he walked out of the house and disappeared on foot.
Shortly thereafter, Nel asked neighbors who happened to drive past to call for help. The other people in the house were unharmed but shocked, he said.
He said he could still believe that the incident at the vehicle was an ordinary burglary, but that he had a different feeling after the man followed him into the house. “From there it no longer looked like a burglary, it changed to a feeling of ‘I’m here to get rid of you’. He focused on attacking me, ”Nel said.
His assailant’s face was not covered, but Nel says he saw him only in the darkness. However, he can remember the knife used to attack him in the finest detail.
Nel and his family have been living on the farm since February. He also works there and says they have been making several improvements in recent times, including a security fence. However, the gates at the fence had not yet been set up.
Nel was discharged from Caledon hospital on Friday afternoon. “Some of my arteries were missed by millimeters,” he said.
According to him, a few weeks ago, in the heat of the moment, he shouted threateningly at the house window in the early hours of the morning after hearing a noise outside the house. He believes the two incidents may be related. “I shouted ‘I will kill you’ and exactly those same words were used on my return on Monday. It was out of sheer shock that I shouted it, ”he said.
The attack on the Nel was reportedly one of at least three incidents reported in the Grabouw area during the past week.
In another incident, a family was allegedly tied up and robbed last night at a farm in the area. They were apparently unharmed after the incident. According to reports, a security guard was assaulted in a separate incident after a robbery on a farm. Further details are not known at this time.
