Zambia World Wide

FUNDA SAWMILL.ZAMBIA

28^th JUNE,1968.

At 5p.m. on Wednesday 26^th June, 1968, my husband, Jack, arrived home from the Mill, and my houseboy, James, went off duty. As my husband was suffering from a very bad attack of bronchitis, and had been ordered by his doctor to rest as much as possible, as soon as he had taken his bath he went straight to bed, having taken drugs which he had been given and which had the effect of making him very drowsy, and almost immediately he was asleep.

After watching the children’s programme on T.V. which finished approx at 6.15 p.m. my two youngest children, Allan  aged ten, and Marianne aged 6, went through to have their baths, and my eldest daughter Lynda aged nineteen, who had arrived home the night before from college, went through to her bedroom to write some letters.

I was in the kitchen finishing off the preparation for our dinner, which we normally have at 6.45 p.m. while watching the news on T.V.

Usually we can always hear if a motor vehicle comes down the road leading to the two senior houses, but on this occasion neither the two younger children or myself heard a car approaching, possibly because they were running the bath water, and I had the pressure cooker steaming away in the kitchen. Lynda being a comparative stranger to Funda, would have assumed that it was our neighbour Me Engelbrecht coming back home from the mill, if only she had heard the car approaching.

At approx 6.30 p.m. I heard the Englebrecht’s two young bull terriers barking furiously, and Marianne came through to the kitchen in her dressing gown and said that she thought the dogs were after our fowls, and I told her not to worry as I thought the barking was coming from the river and probably the dogs had gone out hunting with Mr. Englebrecht. Just then we heard a gunshot, and the sound of people shouting. I ran through to my bedroom where my husband was sleeping, and pulled aside the net curtains and looked towards my neighbour’s home.I couldn’t see anything as it was starting to get dark, but I heard someone moaning and a man’s voice saying “Why are you doing this to me, I’ve never done anything to you ?” I turned towards the bed and said to my husband “oh my God I think Koos has shot someone by mistake.” I don’t know whether he heard me or not, but he didn’t reply, so I think he was still sleeping deeply. By now all three children were in the bedroom with us, and I told Lynda to stay with the two younger ones, and not to let them follow me as I was going over  to the Engelbrechts to see if I could help in any way, as I do all the first aid at the mill.