Dear guests and supporter of the Ponta Malongane Holiday Resort

We have received many queries with regards to the recent articles in “The Beeld”, “Die Burger” and “Cape Argus” about AK-47 shooting over the Easter holidays and in response ?(as being named the resort under the scrutiny of the media) we would like to inform everyone on the situation.

A group of South African tourists from the Western Cape, who were on holiday at the Ponta Malongane Holiday Resort, decided to embark on an excursion outside the boundaries of Ponta Malongane, and explored areas further to the north of Ponta Malongane Holiday Resort.

On their return from Ponta Mamoli, about 5 km from Ponta Malongane, the ambush incident occurred. Three unknown young men appeared out of the dense vegetation, one who was armed with an AK47. Unaware of the strange happenings the driver stopped, he asked the three men if there was a problem, but they just told them to turn-up the vehicle’s windows and keep on driving. In relief they proceeded whereupon the armed individual suddenly opened fire on the vehicle. The motif remains a mystery as the majority of the shots were low, indicating an attempt to stop the vehicle. After the gun was fired the three men fled the scene without any reward.

The wounded middle aged man was treated and stabilized in the camp by the Ponta Malongane paramedic with the assistance of two other paramedics which were also on holiday at Ponta Malongane. The man was soon stabilized and then transported to South Africa, escorted by the Mozambique Police and Ponta Malongane security. We also would like to mention, that without the experience of the Ponta Malongane team and the holiday volunteers, the man could have died. Ponta Malongane supplied most of medical equipment and disposables to save the victims life.

So there are questions to ask yourself about objectiveness of our media/what’s wrong with our media? Why even reputable newspapers downgrade themselves to “yellow press” in order to get “hot sensational material”? When for the first time over the last 4 years a single violent crime incident took place in the Southern Mozambique, it was enough for them to start the hysteria. Three of the most reputable newspapers placed the articles on their first pages, screaming about ‘Bloody Easter’ and ‘holiday in hell’, without any confirmation from either Mozambican or South African police or resort’s management on the facts they published. All conclusions of the above articles were based solely on the opinion of the victim, facts of one article were contradicting to the facts in another and it was said nowhere, that after 1 hour of the incident, Mozambican police had investigated the scene and set block posts on the main roads in the area. There was no mentioning of the fact that additional 50 policemen from Maputo were deployed by Mozambican government the next morning in order to catch the criminals and provide maximum security in the area.

Ponta Malongane has always been and still is a safe destination for thousands of South Africans who prefer to spend their holidays in quiet and crime free natural environment in the Southern Mozambique. Yes, crime free environment. The strict laws of Mozambique, which prosecute serious crime offenders unmercifully, created the environment, where it was too dangerous for criminals to commit any such serious crimes as murder, rape, armed robberies, etc. Don’t get the message wrong, Mozambique is well known for the theft, so look after your cell phone, camera or your wallet, like everywhere else in the world, but it is, by far, much safer place than South Africa. The government of Mozambique, despite the corruption, tries its best to minimize criminal activities, realizing the importance of the tourism for their country. So, the single incidents of the violent crime do happen once in a while, but then they are carefully investigated, criminals are caught in most cases and are punished to set an example for the others not to commit crime ever again.

And last but not least, thousands cases of violent crime are reported in SA on the monthly basis without any attention of the press; in fact, it happens so often so it has sadly become a part of our daily routine. But the single incident in Mozambique has created such havoc in media, which snowballs on the daily basis. So, please, do not let the press, who hunts for the cheap sensations, influence your opinion about safety in Mozambique.

Best regards

The Ponta Malongane Team

Kirill Oussov
Director

Malonkwazi Adventures Mozambique
Tel: 27 13 741 1975
Fax: 27 13 741 3730
Cell: 27 72 229 2218
kirill@malongane.co.za
South Africa

Bloody end to Easter holiday

2007-4-10 10:32

Strand - "The moment I saw the attacker's mate put his fingers in his ears, I knew they were going to shoot us."

These were the words of John Louw, 40, a property financing consultant from Strand, after he and a friend survived a hail of bullets outside the popular southern Mozambican holiday resort of Ponta Malongane.

"I shouted at my friend, Jacques (Gees) Groenewald: 'Oh fuck Gees, they're going to shoot us!' The next moment the bullets rained inside the bakkie.

"Me, my wife, Esperanza and three other couples and our children decided to spend a few days in Mozambique over the Easter weekend." They stayed at Ponta Malongane to the north of Sodwana Bay.

'Take everything'

Louw said they wanted to visit a bay called Frederico some distance from the resort at about 11:00 on Friday. His wife and children at the last moment decided not to accompany them.

"We were about four minutes from our camp when two armed men suddenly appeared in front of our bakkie. One was wearing camouflage, the other one shorts and a T-shirt. They were accompanied by a boy of about 12 to 15 years old," said Louw, who did army service in Angola and recognised the rifles as AK-47s.

"Because of the poor state of the roads one can drive only about 10km/h. We stopped right next to them. The first thing I said was 'take everything - take whatever you want'." One of the attackers answered in English: "We don't want anything."

"Then I noticed the boy putting his fingers in his ears." Louw put his foot down on the accelerator of his 4x4 in an attempt to escape.

"The first bullet smashed the dashboard. We wanted to race away, but the bakkie's window frame caught the barrel of the rifle. The second bullet missed my legs and hit the floor of the bakkie between the pedals.

"Chaos erupted - it was like something from an action movie." Louw said they raced away from the machine gun bullets. They afterwards counted more than 14 bullet holes in the bakkie.

Minutes later they met a vehicle carrying more members of their party who had left camp a few minutes after them. Only then did he feel the pain in his buttocks. "When I touched it, my hand was covered in blood." He was hit through the bakkie's seat. The bullet hit the top of his left buttock before disintegrating.

X-rays showed how shrapnel was distributed from Louw's hip joint to the top of the femur.

Louw was surprised that the resorts in Mozambique didn't have any first aid or any other medical equipment.

Back at the camp he was stabilised by a paramedic from Pretoria who had accompanied a group of divers. "She put me on a drip. The resort had half an hour's oxygen, which she gave me."

They decided to drive to the border under police guard. A Netcare 911 ambulance from Richard's Bay met them halfway.

Louw was admitted to Bay Hospital in Richard's Bay seven hours after the shooting. "They gave me a pain killer for the first time." After two days in hospital there, he flew back from Durban to Cape Town on Sunday. After spending a night in Vergelegen MediClinic in Somerset West, the doctors decided not to remove the shrapnel. "It's dangerously close to an artery and nerves."

Louw was angry because the resort did nothing to help him, but apparently charged him R2500 for the use of the oxygen.

There was no answer at the number of the owners of the resort in Nelspruit on Monday.

Die Burger