Sunday Times journalist David Bullard was shot and wounded when four men broke into his Johannesburg house, police said on Thursday.
Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said Bullard (55) had been shot once on Wednesday, with the bullet going through his arm and into his abdomen.
The four men gained access to his house in Parkview through a bedroom window.
It appeared that Bullard’s wife, Jacqueline, was taken up to the bedroom by one of the robbers when a shot went off.
The four men then fled through the same window, taking a handbag and cellphone with them.
Bullard, who writes a column in the Sunday Times, was reported to be in a stable condition in the Milpark hospital.
The Sunday Times website reported that he would be discharged within the next few days.
Bullard and his wife, according to the website, said police could not have been more helpful or professional. Detectives and a counsellor were on the scene quickly and stayed beyond the call of duty.
“They all have families at home but stayed with us,” said Jacqueline.
Bullard said in one of his recent columns: “We are a cowering society brutalised by violent criminals.”
Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya said he had visited Bullard in hospital shortly after the incident.
“He was upbeat and joking about it.”
The editor of Business Times, Paul Stober, said: “We’re very upset about it. We wish him the best and are ready to welcome him back.”
Stober told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday morning that Bullard was still in the hospital’s intensive-care unit. Though in “in pain and shock”, he was in good spirits.
Most feared crime
The crime most feared in South Africa is housebreaking, according to a survey recently conducted for the National Prosecuting Authority.
“The reason is the fear that the burglary will take place while the residents are on the premises,” said Andre du Toit, acting director for public prosecutions in the Free State. He was addressing a symposium on serious and violent crime in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
“One can avoid dangerous areas and prevent robbery, but you cannot stay away from your house.”
Du Toit said it was disturbing that only 1% of reported housebreakings went to court. It was well known that the best deterrent to crime was that the perpetrator would be caught.
“The possibility is almost non-existent concerning housebreaking.”
Du Toit said robbery was one of the serious crimes that was reported the least.
The public’s impression that crime was out of control could largely be attributed to the increase in robberies since 1994, to the violent nature of robberies and to the “new-phenomenon” robberies.