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Durban – A cattle farmer was in a critical condition after being shot in the stomach in a robbery on his Hluhluwe farm in Zululand early on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Peter-John Hassard, who is in his mid-thirties, underwent surgery at the Richards Bay Hospital, a friend, Casper Badenhorst, told The Mercury on Tuesday night. <\/p>\n
He said Hassard had heard screams at 5am coming from the nearby compound where the farmworkers lived. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was worried about his staff and wanted to help. (His staff) were being held hostage and robbed by a gang of armed men,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Hassard was driving towards the compound when the gang stopped him. <\/p>\n
There was a scuffle for a gun, which was when the farmer was overpowered and shot in the stomach. The robbers ran off, Badenhorst said. <\/p>\n
The farmworkers were robbed of cellphones and electrical appliances, he said. <\/p>\n
A security company and police arrived soon afterwards and Hassard was taken to hospital by ambulance. <\/p>\n
Badenhorst, who is a pineapple farmer, described his long-time friend as a humble person who spoke fluent Zulu and always helped those in need. <\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to his family tonight and they are traumatised. (Hassard) cannot even talk.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hassard is a member of the board of the Red Meat Association. <\/p>\n
Koos Marais, of the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union, condemned the attack. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are concerned by the attack on another food producer. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe continuation of attacks on farmers is senseless and we call on the government and the police to do more to ensure that farmers are protected.\u201d <\/p>\n
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane confirmed the incident and said Hluhluwe police were investigating attempted murder and robbery charges. <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Flickr.com File photo Durban – A cattle farmer was in a critical condition after being shot in the stomach in a robbery on his Hluhluwe farm in Zululand early on Tuesday. Peter-John Hassard, who is in his mid-thirties, underwent surgery at the Richards Bay Hospital, a friend, Casper Badenhorst, told The Mercury on Tuesday night. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-19915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}