THURSDAY, 2.00PM:
TWO stock thieves were shot dead and several people were injured yesterday afternoon when a group of rustlers on horseback attacked a group of SA and Lesotho security force members rounding up stolen livestock at Qubenga on the Lesotho border.
About 60 horsemen surrounded the group, firing on them and attacking them with knobkerries and sjamboks while attempting to recover the seized animals. Ten public order police members and five SA National Defence Force members returned fire with R4 and R5 rifles and 9mm pistols.
Two of the attackers were killed and three injured. A sergeant Ngcinwane of Mount Fletcher was stabbed in the chest and a police Nyala armoured vehicle was damaged in the attack, police representative Superintendent Marinda Mills said.
Police seized two shotguns and ammunition, and 18 R4 and R5 automatic rifles after the skirmish. Mills said the attackers are believed to be South Africans. The joint Lesotho/South African task force later identified four cattle, six goats, 13 sheep and one donkey as having been stolen.