KZN man saves parents from thugs

Durban - A startled son came to the rescue of his parents in the family’s Kingsburgh home on the South Coast on Monday, when he took on three intruders in the early hours of the morning with a baseball bat.

Morne Potgieter, 24, was woken by the cries of his 43-year-old mother, Jenny, at 3am. When he went into his parents’ bedroom and noticed her being throttled by an attacker, adrenaline kicked in and he swung at the man on top of her with the bat. Another man had attacked his father, Dave, 62, with a knife.

“I just went straight for the guy on top of my mother and hit him with the bat, but there was a third guy who came from behind and pushed me on to the ground.”

He again lashed out with the bat, but a scuffle ensued and all three men turned on him.

“My dad saw what was happening and wrestled a knife from one of them. He may have stabbed one of them too,” he added on Monday, in an interview at his home, where he was still cleaning blood from the floor and walls.

“When you hear your mother screaming, it’s just an instant reaction. I always wondered what I would do in a situation like this, but before my eyes were open, the bat was in my hands.”

Potgieter, who does not play baseball, said the criminals had been “lucky” he did not have enough space to swing the bat any harder but “it was enough to get them off my mom”.

He managed to push the men down the stairs where they kicked open a door and ran off.

He commended his father for coming to his aid when the men ganged up on him, despite having sustained multiple stab wounds.

Dave Potgieter’s lung had been punctured and he has been admitted to the intensive care ward of a nearby hospital.

“I was extremely worried about my dad. It is good news that he is stable,” said Potgieter, who had searched the house thoroughly to ensure the men had left before calling the police.

“We could not wait for the ambulance. My mom and I carried my dad to the car and she drove him to hospital. By the time she was leaving, the police were already here, it was a very quick response.”

He said the incident happened “too quickly” for him to get a look at the intruder’s faces but he remembered one of them wearing a hat.

He thought the men had not realised he was in the house because they appeared “surprised” when he entered the room. “They were not expecting me,” he said.

He believes the men entered their complex on Wessex Drive at around 2am and went into his parents’ room, looking for car keys.

While the family had not yet taken stock of what had been taken,

they were aware that laptops and cellphones were missing.

George Snodey, of the Community Crime Prevention Organisation, said there were not enough police to cover the South Coast.

“Crime is terrible at the moment. We have ‘contact’ crime, but mostly it’s house breakings. We will continue fighting it,” he said.

Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said no arrests had been made.

One of the Potgieters’ Jack Russells, CD, was killed in the attack and a second, Fred, was stabbed in the head but was recovering after being treated by a vet on Monday.

The Mercury