Three people questioned after murder of tourist near Kruger Park, victim's wife describes attack

Police minister Bheki Cele says three people are being questioned after the murder of a German tourist in Mpumalanga on Monday.

The 67-year-old was shot dead while travelling on the Numbi Road en route to the Kruger National Park's Numbi Gate with three other people. It is believed to have been a botched hijacking. 

“As we stand here, we have three people of interest. They are not arrested, they are people of interest,” said Cele.

“We are working to find out how far they [police] have gone with them — so we believe we will be able to crack the case very soon since the police have done the job. They [police] believe they are not far from cracking this case.”

Cele visited the White River area in Mpumalanga on Wednesday with police commissioner Fannie Masemola and Mpumalanga officials.

He said he had been briefed about 11 robbery cases in the area. “It is a sad situation. It does look like we have a problem here. We have not done very well. Two arrests have been made on those 11 incidents.”

Tourism was a “gold mine” for the area and the industry needed to be protected, he said. It was important for all stakeholders to work together to come up with preventive measures to ensure such incidents are not repeated.

“Also bring the communities on board. We believe communities here will help, even those that have grievances against the companies running the lodges. We need to bring everybody together.”

Cele said the police would work with all stakeholders on preventive measures, including providing more resources.

“We are hopeful these people of interest will help us. That’s what the world will expect, that even [though] the incident happened, we are able to respond.”

The group of German tourists spent time with tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu at OR Tambo International Airport before returning to Germany on Wednesday. 

The tourism ministry said the German tourists arrived in the country on September 20, landing at the Cape Town International Airport. They stayed in Cape Town for four nights and five days, then proceeded to Durban and stayed there for four days and three nights. From Durban, they travelled to the Drakensberg and stayed there for two nights, and then on Monday drove more than 600km to Mpumalanga.

Victim's wife describes attack

The victim's wife, in a statement to authorities translated from German into English that was shared by the ministry, described how they were attacked.

The couple and two friends were on their way to the Kruger Park when their hired car was barricaded by another vehicle.

“This barricade was very sudden and only 800m from the Numbi gate.”

Three heavily armed men jumped out of the vehicle and started to walk towards the tourists.

Her husband had activated the central locking system when he was driving. He was unlocking it when a shot rang out, she said.

He slumped sideways after being shot.

The armed attackers continued to approach the vehicle.

The driver, who had succumbed to his wounds by that time, according to the statement, still had his foot on the accelerator and this caused the vehicle to reverse at high speed. The vehicle swerved across the road and crashed into a boundary wall, coming to a stop against a water storage tank.

A member of the community arrived to investigate the crash, which caused the attackers to flee.

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