MONDAY, 11.30AM
TWO little boys were found at the side of the N2 at the weekend, clinging to their dying father after a horrific hijacking that claimed the lives of both their parents.
The parents, Graham and Bernadette Ridge, were travelling from Sasolburg to Ballito on the Durban North Coast with their sons, aged two and four, when they stopped near the Umgeni Bridge so the smaller child could relieve himself.
Two men appeared at the passenger door and demanded the car. When Ridge refused, the assailants shot Ridge and his wife, who died at the scene. The attackers apparently threw both parents and the children out of the car and drove off, but not far; an anti-hijacking mechanism clicked in and the car was abandoned.
The dying Ridge was airlifted to hospital after a passing police vehicle found the blood-covered children clinging to him. He died soon after. The children, who do not understand what happened to their parents, are in the care of their grandparents.