Pretoria – A Pretoria woman was punched in the face when she intervened in an incident of domestic abuse on the side of a busy road.
Now Joy van Niekerk is offering a R5 000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest of the man who assaulted her and his partner in Faerie Glen, east of Pretoria, on Sunday afternoon.
Van Niekerk was driving behind her mother’s car on Solomon Mahlanngu Drive turning into Old Farm Road when a BMW sped past them. After eventually turning, she noticed her mother had parked on the side of the road.
“I saw the BMW parked on the side of the road as well. I thought maybe she [mother] was offering assistance as she is a caregiver. My mother told me that the man in the car was beating up the woman. I went to the passenger side and told the woman to come with me,” she said.
The woman was bleeding from the nose due to the amount of beating she had endured from the man. While Van Niekerk was speaking to the passenger next to the car, she was punched in the nose by the man.
“I didn’t say anything to him. He just punched me on the nose, pushed the woman back into the car and they drove off. Luckily my nose is not broken. I still cannot believe this happened. I am still in shock,” she said.
“It was very upsetting to see that and I just couldn’t watch. Thinking about it now, I just realised that the man could have pulled out a gun on me, but at that point my instincts just kicked in and I wanted to help her.”
Van Niekerk said there were other people on the side of the road, including two Fidelity security guards who she was trying to locate to assist with information. She said her father put up the R5 000 reward for any information that could lead them to the man.
She added that she was trying to get hold of the CCTV footage from the intersection in order to identify the car and possibly trace the man through the license plate.
Garsfontein police spokesperson Warrant Officer Dave confirmed that a case of assault had been opened.
Karabo Ngoepe, News24
