Blignaut Abraham "Braam"

Age 35. The initial criminal assault took place during the early morning hours of July 10, 2015, on the family's smallholding in the Buffelsfontein area near Mooinooi and Rustenburg in the North West province. Braam Blignaut, a 35-year-old mine foreman at the nearby Tharisa Mine, was working a night shift when he received a distressed phone call from his wife, Izulda, who stated that the property's dogs were barking aggressively and she feared someone was outside. He immediately left his workplace and rushed home. Upon entering the property grounds, he was ambushed and overpowered by two armed intruders who forced him into the house at gunpoint. The assailants woke their four young sons, who had been sleeping in the living room, and bound Braam Blignaut's hands in front of them before pulling Izulda out of bed and tying her up as well. The attackers aggressively demanded cash and firearms. During the confrontation, Braam Blignaut pleaded with the gunmen to take whatever valuables they wanted but to leave his family unharmed. The situation turned lethal when one of the attackers shot him three times in the upper body and chest at close range. Before the robbers fled with a meager loot consisting of two cellphones and approximately R250 in cash, Braam Blignaut managed to reach his phone to make a final, emotional call to his mother to tell her he loved her and did not believe he would survive. He survived the immediate shooting but sustained catastrophic, irreversible injuries, as the bullets left him completely paralyzed from the waist down. The family relocated to a house within the town of Rustenburg and never returned to the smallholding. Over the subsequent four years, Braam Blignaut endured a continuous medical ordeal characterized by severe complications, including advanced pressure sores, a severe pelvis infection, and osteomyelitis, which eventually necessitated the amputation of both of his legs. He also contracted a severe virus while receiving treatment in a state facility. The long-term physiological strain from these cumulative systemic infections culminated in acute organ failure. Braam Blignaut passed away on the morning of October 5, 2019, at the age of 38, exactly four years and three months after the initial attack. Because his death was a direct consequence of the injuries inflicted during the smallholding invasion, the case was legally handled as a farm attack fatality.