One of Limpopo Mirror's correspondents, Kaizer Nengovhela, had a very bad start to his day when he got robbed at gunpoint on his way to work on Wednesday morning, 6 July.
Nengovhela said he was walking towards the Songozwi medical centre in Burger Street in Louis Trichardt, when a white Polo TSi with Mpumalanga registration plates stopped next to him. He said that one of the three African male passengers seemed to know him, because the man called him by name. "When I heard my name, I thought it must be someone I knew. I walked up to the car, but when I got there, they grabbed my hand and pointed a gun at me. They took my bag with my two cameras and a notepad."
Nengovhela said the fact that they knew him by name indicated that he was being targeted. "I write stories about a lot of people, and we don't always write good things about them. I remember last year after doing an investigative story about the corruption by the National Lottery Commission at the Tshimbupfe drop-in centre. I received a lot of threats and ended up opening a case of intimidation."
He said that, in his profession, he was exposed to many people every day. "I suspect that it is someone I wrote a story about, because I don't have enemies outside my work."
The chairperson of the Limpopo Media Association, Mr Matodzi Makananise, said he was disturbed by the incident. "We as journalists feel that we don't have media freedom yet. We are never free, and we are always at risk. Being known always puts us at risk. People will call you by name, and when you get there, you will find that they have an evil agenda. They didn't want Kaizer; they wanted what was in the cameras - to delete the evidence," said Makananise.
The police in Vhembe confirmed that a case of armed robbery was opened at the Louis Trichardt police station.