{"id":74664,"date":"2017-10-31T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/74664\/farm-attack-survivor-my-wife-was-executed-i-was-collateral-damage\/"},"modified":"2017-11-01T16:54:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T14:54:05","slug":"farm-attack-survivor-my-wife-was-executed-i-was-collateral-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2017\/10\/31\/farm-attack-survivor-my-wife-was-executed-i-was-collateral-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO & PHOTOS: Farm attack survivor – ‘My wife was executed, I was collateral damage’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The murder of Brit expat, Sue Howarth<\/a>, was highlighted when farmers, mostly clad in black, gathered at her farm entrance outside Dullstroom in a protest against farm attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are gathered here at the gate of \u2018tannie\u2019 Sue\u2019s farm,\u201d local farmer Matthew Duggan said in a speech. The term “tannie” means aunt. It is used in Afrikaans as a form of respect when addressing older people.<\/p>\n

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Matthew Duggan (right) with fellow protesters at the Marchlands entrance where Sue Howarth was murdered.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among the crowd, kneeling in prayer, was Robert Lynn, the late Sue’s husband. He stood upright, holding the hands of fellow protesters. His facial expression unmoved by the emotional crowd around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am angry. I am so very angry,\u201d he told www.mobserver.co.za<\/a> after the prayer meeting.<\/p>\n

Sue was murdered on the farm Marchlands in February<\/a> this year. Robert survived the ordeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat gets me the most is the audacity of it all. To come into someone\u2019s house and shoot without saying anything. I thought it was the other way around, you first ask and then shoot,\u201d Robert said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A large group of people gathered to pray against farm murders in Dullstroom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Armed men came to the couple\u2019s house on February 21, shooting at the sleeping couple through their bedroom window. Sue was hit and injured in the process. After ransacking the house and torturing Robert by burning him with a blow torch, the couple were loaded into their own vehicle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The protest saw black and white take hands in solidarity against farm murders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Their attackers drove nearly 50 km with them. They were dumped like trash next to a mountainous road. Robert was shot through the neck. He miraculously survived. The bullet is still lodged in his neck after doctors deemed it too dangerous to remove.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Sue Howarth in hospital.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

He had to listen to his wife\u2019s dying moments in the dark, unable to help her.<\/p>\n

Months later, all Robert has left of his wife is her ashes in a neat wooden box and the continuous flashbacks of that horror night.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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