{"id":20528,"date":"2013-06-19T16:34:41","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T14:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/attack-was-a-hit-says-father\/"},"modified":"2013-06-19T16:34:41","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T14:34:41","slug":"attack-was-a-hit-says-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/attack-was-a-hit-says-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Attack was a hit, says father"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        \t                                <!-- Main Editorial Image --><br \/>\n                    \t\t\t      \t\t\t                                      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/75a6d_1470709007.jpg\" alt=\"farmer hit\" title=\"\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions_credit_article\">Independent Newspapers<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">The attack on Hluhluwe farmer Peter-John Hassard, who was shot in the stomach last month, may have been an attempted hit by rhino poachers, his father believes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"related_articles\">Related Stories<\/p>\n<ul class=\"menu_tab_lists_related\">\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/news\/crime-courts\/cattle-farmer-shot-in-stomach-1.1519856\">Cattle farmer shot in stomach<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--PSTYLE=WT Web Text--><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Durban &#8211; The attack on Hluhluwe farmer Peter-John Hassard, who was shot in the stomach last month, may have been an attempted hit by rhino poachers, his father believes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Peter Hassard, who farms with his son, said on Tuesday he was present during a meeting with the police when an informer named people involved in fighting rhino poaching, including Peter-John, who were on a \u201chit list\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The younger Hassard, who is in his mid-thirties, was in an induced coma at a hospital in Richards Bay and had undergone surgery twice on his liver, his father said on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cHe will be in a coma for six weeks. He cannot move because that is the only way his liver can reconstruct,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cUnfortunately, he also picked up pneumonia, but the specialists are positive that he will be fine.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">He said Peter-John headed the Anti-Rhino Poaching Trust in Zululand and was involved in anti-crime and community projects. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">On the day he was shot Peter-John heard screams coming from the farmworkers\u2019 compound on his game farm at 5am. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">His friend Casper Badenhorst said the workers were being held hostage and robbed by an armed gang. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">On Tuesday, Badenhorst said, he was aware there was speculation that the attack was related to rhino poaching. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">When Hassard drove towards the compound, the gang stopped him. There was a scuffle for a gun and the farmer was overpowered and shot. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The robbers ran off with the farmworkers\u2019 cellphones and electrical appliances. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Hassard sr, the former president of the KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union, told The Mercury that the gang intended to kill his son because he chaired the anti-poaching trust. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cI gave the police three names and four contact numbers that I also got from informers. But the police are yet to make any arrests,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cThis could have been a murder case. I thought high-ranking police officers would be deployed here because this case has a link to rhino poaching.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Since January, Hassard said, he had sold all of his 11 rhino after two had been poached and several attempts had been made to dehorn the others. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cI have one rhino left and that one has been sold too.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">A senior policeman, based in Hluhluwe, said farmers were upset about rhino poaching and several meetings had been held. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cWe are investigating all the links to this shooting, including poaching,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Police spokesman Thulani Zwane did not answer detailed questions. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">No arrests have been made. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesman Musa Mntambo said game rangers often flew over the Hassards\u2019 game farm when they patrolled. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">lungelo.mkamba@inl.co.za <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\"><strong>The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Independent Newspapers The attack on Hluhluwe farmer Peter-John Hassard, who was shot in the stomach last month, may have been an attempted hit by rhino poachers, his father believes. Related Stories Cattle farmer shot in stomach Durban &#8211; The attack on Hluhluwe farmer Peter-John Hassard, who was shot in the stomach last month, may have [&hellip;]<\/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-20528","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\/20528","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=20528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}