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Robbers held at bay, clubbed
20/06/2007 23:11  - (SA)  

Alet van Zyl, Beeld

Malan Jonck, 60, demonstrates how he chased off an armed robber. (Nardus Engelbrecht, Beeld)

Johannesburg - "It tears at your guts. That trauma, that fear. You feel as if you could die at any minute."

Malan Jonck is 60 years and his wife, Corrie, 59. But he says he "feels 102" after keeping robbers at bay for about an hour with his club while they struggled to get through the couple's bedroom door.

Jonck says he woke up from a noise outside the door at about 02:00 on Wednesday morning.

"I thought to myself: 'Is that the wind, or what?'

"Then I listened again and I realised it was someone trying to get in," Jonck said at their farm in the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve near Heidelberg.

"I shouted 'ufunani' (What do you want?. They said: 'Money'."

Dressing table

Jonck and his wife push a dressing table against the door every night, and a triangular iron door-stopper is wedged under the door. The club is stored above the door-frame.

Jonck used the combination of dressing table, wedge and club to keep the robbers at bay for nearly an hour early on Wednesday morning.

"The door would inch open, then I would shut it again. When the gap was large enough, one of the robbers poked his head through."

"That's when I let him have it over the head with this," he said, brandishing the club.

"It was quiet for a while. I don't know if they dragged him away, but then they returned."

That was then when the robbers fired two shots, one presumably with a handgun and the other with a shotgun, through the closed door.

"I think they heard my wife shouting hysterically over the phone."

"Please help. Help, we're in trouble," Corrie screamed. Dirk Ras, a friend, received a phone call from the couple at about 02:16.

Phoned four police stations

He phoned at least four police stations in the area.

Nobody appeared to know where the farm was, and the phone at Zonkizizwe police station, which was closest to them, was continually engaged.

Radio control eventually managed to send a police vehicle to the farm.

The robbers "did not get away with much", Jonck said. They stole a "R50 radio", a small compressor and sugar.

It's the second time the Joncks have been attacked on their farm. The first time was in 2004, in the middle of the day.

"It's like a duel. One of the two sides must win. We won this time, thank the Lord," Jonck said.

"But," Corrie added in a resigned tone, "we don't know if they'll be back tonight".