Teen tackles intruders, can’t save dad
A schoolboy whose dad was killed when gunmen stormed their smallholding has told how he tried to protect his family.
|||Durban - A schoolboy whose father was killed when seven gunmen stormed their smallholding near Camperdown early on Tuesday has described how he tried to protect his family.
Scott Govender, 16, said he was woken by a loud noise coming from his parents’ bedroom.
“I ran up the stairs and saw some of the men breaking down the bedroom door. I confronted them when one of them swung an object at me and I stepped back.
“I held on to the man until he knocked me down and stood over me pointing a firearm.”
Earlier, they had woken his elder brother Dhavlin at gunpoint and marched him to his parents’ bedroom.
“My father had bolted the door, but they smashed it down and shot him – I don’t know whether through the door.”
His father, 50-year-old businessman Krishna Govender, died. His mother, Indarani, escaped.
Police were not able to confirm on Tuesday that the men had gained entry by smashing a window.
Govender moved from Pinetown about 11 years ago to settle near Camperdown with his four sons, and run his trucking business. His sister, Shamila, Ramsamy said he was a fun-loving person and that his family had been everything to him.
“He was very popular and never hesitated to help anybody who needed his help.” Nephew Lee Govender said of his uncle that he had been a “kind-hearted and happy-go-lucky person; someone always willing to help.”
Police spokesman Jay Naicker confirmed that at 1.30am on Tuesday seven men had ransacked the Govender home at gunpoint, and shot Govender before fleeing with two cellphones.
Koos Marais, the head of security at Kwanalu, said the crime was not classified as a farm murder.
“Camperdown is a rural area, known as a red spot for these sorts of incidents, because many people live on smallholdings surrounded by densely populated areas. But we don’t classify them as farm murders,” he said.
The Mercury