Van Den Berg Gerhard

Age 45. Gerhard was a dedicated family man and a farmer who lived on the Klippan Farm with his wife, Annalize, and their two young children, Izelda and Gerhard. On Saturday, October 25, 2003, his path intersected with a terrifying carjacking drama purely because of his willingness to help a fellow member of his community. Earlier that day, a neighboring thirty-six-year-old farmer named Leonard Scholtz had been ambushed and held at gunpoint by two armed attackers upon arriving at a fuel depot in town. The criminals forced Scholtz back into his utility vehicle, ordering him to drive out into the countryside where they met up with four more accomplices waiting in a sedan. The gang locked Scholtz in the trunk of their car, drove a short distance further, and then let him out, commanding him to run away. As he fled across a wire fence, they fired at him, hitting him in the ankle and foot. Realizing his life hung in the balance, Scholtz collapsed into the veld and pretended to be dead. Gerhard van den Berg had been out tending to his livestock and was driving back along the farm road toward Klippan when he witnessed the commotion and noticed Scholtz in distress. Unaware of the lethal danger, Gerhard pulled over his white Ford Ranger bakkie to render assistance to his neighbor. The moment he stepped out, the gang of six men ruthlessly swarmed his vehicle. They opened fire without hesitation, shooting Gerhard in the stomach, arm, and head. He died instantly on the side of the road. The attackers abandoned his body, looted what they could, and sped away in both their sedan and Gerhard’s stolen pickup truck. Scholtz eventually managed to limp to the main road for help. Following the murder, the Northern Free State police offered a reward of twenty thousand rands for information leading to an arrest