GRANNY STABBED AT BONTEHEUWEL INTERSECTION

Call for action as criminals grow bolder

- GENEVIEVE SERRA and MURRAY SWART

A FAMILY celebration turned deadly on Friday night when 64-year-old grandmother Karin van Aardt from Nelspruit was brutally stabbed at one of Cape Town's most high-risk intersections, en route to her grandchild's birthday party.

Just hours after arriving from Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, van Aardt was attacked at the intersection of Jakkalsvlei Avenue and Jakes Gerwel Drive in Bonteheuwel, a location infamous for violent crime.

This shocking incident not only highlights the profound loss experienced by her family but also underscores the alarming rise in violent crime, fuelled by an ineffective justice system, according to Dr Corné Mulder, the Freedom Front Plus leader.

Van Aardt and her husband, Herman, were stopped at a traffic light when a group of men smashed the passenger window and stabbed her multiple times in the chest while attempting to steal her handbag.

Herman rushed his wife to Netcare N1 City Hospital, but she succumbed to her injuries.

The police have since seized the rental car, but as yet, no suspects have been arrested.

Mulder, who released a statement about the murder, said three weeks prior, the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) warned of the lawlessness around the airport, calling for urgent action against violent attacks on the N2 and R300.