South African Family Attacked on Noordhoek Beach, Saved by ‘Miracle’

A Bellville family of three – husband, wife and daughter – were attacked during an early morning stroll on Noordhoek Beach in Kommetjie on Saturday morning… but thanks to a ‘miracle’ they survived.

Despite reports by NSRI and local media outlets that only the wife was attacked, the husband was too… but thanks to fate the attacker was unable to stab him as maliciously as intended.

The husband – Dewald le Grange – said on a post on Facebook Sunday evening that “the press never bothered to get the facts”.

He said “the miracle of this story is that the blade of the Knife that I was attacked with broke off in the handle before the dude could stab me successfully.

“He was left with a bottle as a weapon that he unfortunately used on my wife…” (The press incorrectly said she was attacked with a knife.)

Dewald said the attacker than turned back to him “but I decided rather to take care of my wife than to spend more time with the attacker. Offered my Galaxy S7 as a take home gift.”

He said it was clear that “the Modus Operandi is first attack and then ask later…”

Fortunately for the family local surfers and residents rallied to help them.

Local resident Pieter Berner said on Facebook that it made him “so sad’ to find the family having just been “attacked by a scumbag” on his favourite beach break down south.

He and Stiffie du Toit – who happens to be a doctor – were headed down for a surf when they came across the daughter, who was “super distressed”. She “eventually told us that her mom was in bad shape and that she was bleeding,” Pieter wrote.

Stiffie was able to administer first aid, using another surfer’s medi-kit, said Pieter.

“The dad got hurt as well, but luckily their daughter (pictured here) could get away before being assaulted.”

Pieter said the way that Dewald and his daughter handled the situation and “stood by each other” was inspirational.

Because of the incorrect press reports, Pieter then outlined “a few facts”:

• They were not only attacked, they were assaulted with a bottle and with a knife, the intention was clearly not only to hurt these people, but to do worse.
• This was the doing of one man… one scumbag assaulting 3 people… hitting, stabbing and slashing at them without any regard for human life.
• The BIG issue is that the so called rangers only rocked up at the scene after most had been done to assist… they were supposed to be on the beach early in the morning but they weren’t.
• The local Kommetjie residents were the ones who literally opened the doors to their houses so that the family may be better assisted.

Dewald’s wife suffered head lacerations and was taken to hospital.

Residents of the community, which has suffered at least nine beach attacks in recent weeks, are adamant that a solution must be found urgently and that the attackers should not be given the power to ruin their lives.

Pieter said: “We live in a beautiful place with a bright future ahead. We should never let scumbags take away our ability to enjoy the spectacular outdoors and we must remain positive even when shit like this happens.

“Not sure what we can do to help the communities of Kommetjie and Noordhoek, but this is an ongoing crime problem, that needs to be solved. I believe in a peaceful society and do not want this post to be used as a forum for hate, but rather of love. Time to put a few minds together and come up with a strategy to effectively solve this #kommetjie #noordhoek #family #attack #capetown #southafrica.”

Some suggested putting up an identikit of the attacker, but Dewald said “when someone’s storming towards you with a knife… or your wife sits on the beach bleeding profusely from her head, the last thing on your mind is to get info for the police… but we did recover the handle and the blade and they did get some fingerprints from that I believe.”

He said he will be taking up his reservations about the efforts of SanParks next week. “It is however a pity that 4 to 5 members of Sanparks were less than 400m from the point of attack…”

Dewald will also be putting a practical action plan to the table to Western Cape Legislator Mark Wiley, he said.

“I don’t believe the answer lies for us to be protected by someone else… and commandos and security guards. We need to be pro-active to look after ourselves. We need a plan to take back our nature reserves, our beaches and our mountains…

“Since I did not spend 6 weeks in a Hospital…I will give back that time to set up a structure on how we can #TakeBackMyNature…

“I will be in contact with the NoordHoek community… But Noordhoek will be one of the Safest Beaches in Cape Town before June 2018! That is my undertaking.”