WIDOW’S TORMENT
‘I never want to return...’
WIDOW Kamla Andhee has spoken for the first time about her desperate fight for survival as she lay trapped under her husband’s bloodied body after they were ambushed and shot outside their KwaDukuza (Stanger) farm.
More than a week after the murder at Ashville Farm, the 57-year-old mother of three, who was shot in the abdomen and suffered a broken arm, is recuperating at her daughter’s Durban home.
The couple were heading for work at the Stanger Training Centre at 5.15am on Monday last week when masked gunmen pounced. As robbers sprayed their van with bullets, their two farm labourers dived for cover.
Rajpaul, 62, a citrus and sugar cane farmer raised on the farm, was shot multiple times and died trying to drive away. He lost control of the van and crashed into an abandoned house metres from their home.
“Every morning we leave home around 5.15am. On that day, we were going to drop off an employee at the taxi rank as he was returning home to Mozambique. Our other employee had just opened the front gate for us to leave when I saw two men appear,” Andhee told POST this week.
“One was tall and the other short. Before we could react, they shot at us. All I remember is the workers running off and Rajpaul accelerating the van and hitting an abandoned house on our property like an aeroplane.
“We were both trapped inside and my husband’s body was on top of me. I felt his blood dripping on me like hot water.
“I was scared the men were lurking outside and would shoot me, so I pretended I was dead,” she said.
“I lay there for about 15 minutes and during that time, I began talking to myself – but in my mind. I told our three children that their father was dead and repeatedly asked God for strength.”
Andhee said her employees did not check up on them as they were also afraid.
As she lay there she heard water gushing.
“I thought petrol was leaking from the van and that if we remained inside, it would catch alight and we would be burnt,” she said. Later she learnt it was liquid from the damaged radiator.
“When I assumed the robbers were gone, I plucked up the courage and mustered all my strength to push Rajpaul off me. I grabbed his cellphone, held on to the steering wheel and forced myself through the front windscreen, which was broken.”
Unaware that she was shot, Andhee staggered to their house barefoot and hid indoors.
“My hands were trembling but I managed to call my daughter and told her that her dad was shot. I also called my neighbour.”
When help finally arrived, Andhee was told her husband was dead and that she had to be hospitalised for a gunshot wound.
She was discharged on Wednesday and returned to her home of 37 years.
“Yes, I was scared to be there, but I had my family with me so I felt strong.
“We stayed at the house until my husband’s funeral, and by Sunday, I packed most of my belongings and left the farm with my daughter.
“I never want to return to Ashville again.”
She said walkers-by often stole fruit and vegetables from the farm, but she and her husband had ignored this as petty crime.
“We never had a burglar guard on our front door because we always felt safe here. It was our home.”
Andhee, a teaching assistant, has many unanswered questions.
“There is no doubt in my mind that those men were timing us. How did they know what time to attack?
“Also, they saw we had other vehicles on the property which they could easily have stolen. Why did they wait for us to get into our van just to shoot at us?
“Why didn’t they steal anything? I have so many questions that will remained unanswered until they are caught.”
Police have not yet made any arrests.
She said her husband, who worked as a bus driver at the training centre, loved his farm.
“He always told me that he would never leave and would rather die there,” she said.
“His wish has been fulfilled.”