[imagesource: Yeshiel Panchia / News24]

On Monday, a German tourist was shot dead on Numbi Road near Hazyview in Mpumalanga in an attempted hijacking.

67-year-old Joerg Schnarr, his wife Vera, and two of their friends were headed for a lodge near Kruger National Park’s Numbi Gate when armed suspects in a VW Caddy stopped them.

Schnarr, who was driving the Hyundai Staria pictured below, was shot through the window and died in his wife’s arms.

News24 spoke with Chris Schalkwyk, the executive manager of Mdluli Safari Lodge. He said when the group stopped to switch drivers, the suspects likely noticed the vehicle and began to follow them.

They were ambushed about three kilometres short of Numbi Gate:

“The hijackers stopped in front of them and forced them to come to a stop.”

Schalkwyk said two armed men approached the passenger and driver before shooting the driver, who refused to open the door.

Image SAPS

The vehicle then reversed and crashed into the wall of Heroes Academy School wall.

“The car came to a standstill close to a water tank and the attackers fled the scene empty-handed,” he said.

A husband dying in his wife’s arms and nothing taken is such a sad indictment of the value placed on human life by criminals in this country.

That area has now been labelled a crime hotspot, reports TimesLIVE:

The COO of the KLCBT, Linda Grimbeek, said the road has been patrolled by private security for the last few months after previous incidents. In March two German tourists were mugged near the gate, while in January attackers shot at a Pretoria mother and her two children in another botched robbery.

SA National Parks (SANParks) confirmed Numbi Gate has been identified as a hotspot for crime, with other incidents in the past.

A R50 000 reward has been offered for information that leads to the successful prosecution of the perpetrators by the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism.

A spokesperson for SANParks said that while they’re trying to make that stretch of road safer, it falls outside of the boundaries of Kruger Park:

The parks agency advises tourists to use alternative gates like Crocodile Bridge, Phabeni and Paul Kruger and to travel in convoys if possible.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said that no arrests have been made but police have “intensified their investigation”.

Meanwhile, as per usual, Police Minister Bheki Cele will pop in today to offer condolences and nothing of actual substance.

[sources:news24&timeslive]