Concern over stone-throwing incidents

Window hit so hard, car occupants thought it was gunshot

hen Theresa Andrews* heard a loud crack and saw her fellow passenger lurch forward, she thought he’d been shot.

She and her family are the latest to experience stone-throwing on the R67 north of Bathurst.

“It was so loud, it was like a gunshot,” Andrews said.

“I don’t think they threw it — there was too much force for that: I think it must have been a [catapult] or a BB gun.”

This is the second reported incident in three weeks.

The incidents have been at night, or in the late afternoon, on a Friday or Saturday.

On Friday December 22, around 8pm, Marie Havenga and her husband,

WCorrie, were driving back from Makhanda to Port Alfred, when a rock or large stone (she assumed) struck their car. They were around 1km from Bathurst on the R67.

Shaken, they carried on driving until they reached the Bathurst Police Station, where they encountered another driver who had just experienced the same thing.

“We were in a hurry and she was going to report it, so we didn’t,” Havenga said.

Two weeks later, Havenga had to fetch a passenger from a bus arriving in Makhanda in the early evening.

She said after the December incident, she was afraid to drive on that section of road at night.

Andrews was a passenger in her brother-in-law ’ s new Volkswagen Caddie, together with her nephew and other family members.

They were on their way back to her home in Port Alfred from a trip to Makhanda late on the afternoon of Saturday January 13.

“It was so loud I thought it was a gunshot, Andrews said. “When I saw my nephew next to me lurch forward, I was convinced he had been hit.”

Fortunately the side-window had taken the hit. It had nevertheless completely shattered.

Afterwards, she recalled being aware of two people walking next to the road and wondered whether they may have been responsible.

When she went to report the incident at the Bathurst Police Station, she was told there had been a similar incident around 10.30pm the night before.

“We had to make a statement to the police, for insurance purposes.”

Department of transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose said he had yet to receive confirmation of the latest incident from the police; however, he said: “If indeed that is the case, it is completely unacceptable.

“We have called on the police to follow up on those allegations and keep an eye on that stretch of the road.

“It is not the first time we have heard these allegations.

“We trust the police will look into this matter and address it.”

Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli confirmed that on Saturday January 13 2024, Bathurst SAPS received information of an incident of stone throwing on the R67 near Bathurst.

“According to information in police records, it is alleged that a local business owner reported that one of his guests alleged that his vehicle was hit by a stone as he was driving towards Nolukhanyo,” Nkohli said.

“However, no criminal case was reported at the police station.”

Nkohli said the police were urging anyone whose vehicle had been damaged by stones to report the matter at the police station for further investigation.

*Not her real name – she asked not to be identified.