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Johannesburg – Five lions have reportedly escaped from the Kruger National Park and are on the loose in Mpumalanga.

The Mpumalanga police confirmed the incident to Netwerk24.

They apparently escaped on Monday morning and are somewhere close to the N4 in the Mananga area close to the border with Swaziland.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said that rangers are in the area looking for the escaped predators.

Hlathi said the lions were last spotted at around 21:40 under a bridge at the N4. 

He warned motorists and pedestrians to be on the lookout and said the lions already tried to catch cattle near the highway on Monday evening, Netwerk24 reported.

Mahikeng – A father of two from Leeudoringstad in North West wounded a robber and shot dead his accomplice in a fight on Friday night when a gang of robbers attacked his home.

Chris Holtzhausen, 44, is now being accused of attempted murder and murder, Netwerk24 reports.

“It was a fight to survive. I knew that if I succumbed, they would kill me and rape my wife and children…I just had to protect them.”

Holtzhausen was severely assaulted and even lost two of his toenails.  His wife Elize was assaulted with a crowbar.  Both have to take antiretroviral medicine after undergoing HIV/Aids tests.

Demanded money

“My eldest daughter, 9, is a heroine. When she heard the first shot, she grabbed her three-year-old sister, rolled them both in a blanket and hid under the bed”.

Holtzhausen’s mother Bets, 68, was buried on Friday after suffering a heart attack. Some of her family members, Hennie Bear, 71 and his wife Vicky, 78, spent the night at the Holtzhausens after the funeral.

Holtzhausen said: “We woke up when our Yorkshire terrier, which slept on the bed, started growling. The robbers were, however, already inside the house.”

Holtzhausen later saw that the palisade fence surrounding the house had been twisted open and a sliding door had been lifted off its track.

The robbers wore balaclavas and hit Holtzhausen on his right arm with a crowbar. They demanded money.

“We told them that there wasn’t any money in the house.”

The noise woke Bear and the robbers also assaulted him.

Ransacked house

Holtzhausen said: “Both my knees and my feet sustained blows. Two of my toenails had to be removed.”

Elize has injuries to her left arm, knees, buttocks and thighs.  She pulled the balaclava off one of the robbers who told Elize in Afrikaans: “Leave him…I’m going to use a knife to cut you.”

Bear was fighting for his life with some of the robbers while one pressed a pistol to his head.

While Elize, Bear and Vicky were being assaulted, some of the robbers ransacked the house. Some of Vicky’s fingers were broken when she tried to fight back.

In the confusion Holtzhausen managed to fetch his pistol from a safe and fired two shots in the lounge.

“I can’t describe how terrible it was, but I had to pull the trigger in self-defence.”

Four other robbers fled and the police found a backpack containing stolen cellphones, wallets, iPads and the watches of the two children.

Holtzhausen says his eldest daughter has been severely traumatised and she is refusing to return home.

“We were still traumatised following my mother’s death and on top of that we had to be burgled as well.”

The family members are going to receive counselling.

The North West police are searching for four robbers who fled and are investigating a case of armed house robbery.

Police spokesperson Sergeant Kelebogile Moleko said it was standard procedure to open a case of murder or attempted murder after someone dies or is injured in a shooting. He said as soon as the investigation is completed, the dossier would be handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority to decide whether anyone would be prosecuted in connection with the shooting.