An appeal to raise funds for a South African triathlete who was the victim of a brutal attack in which three men tried to cut his legs off with a chainsaw has raised tens of thousands of pounds.
The incident happened while Mhlengi Gwala, in training for the forthcoming national championships, was riding his bike near the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban in the early hours of Tuesday morning, reports News24.com.
His three assailants dragged him into nearby bushes and according to his sponsor, Sue de la Porte, the 26-year-old believed at first that they were attempting to mug him.
She said: “He tried offering them his cellphone and money, but they pinned him down and tried to saw off his leg.”
De la Porte, who spent all day Tuesday with him at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, continued: “He is very badly injured. We’ve just spoken to the plastic surgeon and he is currently in the surgical ward.”
News of the attack was broken on Twitter by leading South African triathlete, Henri Schoeman, winner of the bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games behind Team GB’s Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee.
He wrote: “A friend of mine, cycling in the Durban area was robbed by three people this morning, Then they attempted to saw off both legs with a chainsaw. Blade too blunt and only got half way through one and started on the other. Absolutely disgusting! How safe are we on SA roads?”
In a second tweet, Schoeman added: “I wish all the best to @MhlengiGwala in his operation and road to recovery. We all stand behind you and support you as we need to make cycling safer on the roads in South Africa!”
Gwala was due to undergo surgery yesterday and beforehand his friend and training partner Sandile Shange said: “The doctor says the blood flow is good, the only problem is with his tendons.”
According to the fundraising page set up on his behalf by JP Valverde on the crowdfunding site Backabuddy.co.za, “the surgery went very well and now the road to recovery begins.”
Valverde wrote: “We are hoping to raise funds to support him with all his medical expenses, transportation, bike replacement and rehabilitation costs.”
At the time of writing, the crowdfunding appeal has raised 552,000 Rand (£33,400) of its 750,000 Rand (£45,400) target.
Police in South Africa have launched a manhunt to try and track down the attackers.
25 thoughts on “Thousands of pounds raised for South African triathlete who was victim of chainsaw attack while cycling”
I don’t think it was a
I don’t think it was a chainsaw, rather a hacksaw after reading this all over the news yesterday, still so horrific.
There’s clearly the potential
There’s clearly the potential to make money from fake news stories. Not saying this is one, but I can image the bleeding hearts falling over themselves in their rush to donate.
Ban the chainsaw .
Ban the chainsaw .
Now we know why trump used
Now we know why trump used the term sh*thole.
ErnieC wrote:
Once they’ve kicked out all the white farmers let’s see what happens. Widespread starvation in 2 years is my guess.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Without addressing the racist overtones of your post, have you considered the fact that in all possible scenarios of the government’s studies on Brexit, the economy is worse?
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
The irony of this post is so fucking big, only the really stupid won’t be able to see it.
don simon wrote:
The irony of this post is so fucking big, only the really stupid won’t be able to see it.— ErnieC
Well lets’ revisit this post in about 5 years and see if South Africa is any better off for it’s redistribution methods.
Why do things have to be about race when you state some facts? Well actually the move by the SA government is entirely based on race as they want to take land owned by whites with no compensation. It’s not even like whites appeared in the last century and did a land grab, they started cultivating the land in the 1650s.
Most African nations can’t run a piss-up in brewery and SA is heading the same way. Look at the economy over the past 7 years, tanking fast, $8000 GDP/capita to $5000. That’s progress!
Don’t worry though, I’m sure the Chinese will save them with some short term explotation like they’re doing elsewhere in Africa.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Well lets’ revisit this post in about 5 years and see if South Africa is any better off for it’s redistribution methods.
Why do things have to be about race when you state some facts? Well actually the move by the SA government is entirely based on race as they want to take land owned by whites with no compensation. It’s not even like whites appeared in the last century and did a land grab, they started cultivating the land in the 1650s.
Most African nations can’t run a piss-up in brewery and SA is heading the same way. Look at the economy over the past 7 years, tanking fast, $8000 GDP/capita to $5000. That’s progress!
Don’t worry though, I’m sure the Chinese will save them with some short term explotation like they’re doing elsewhere in Africa.— ErnieC
Told ya!
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Well lets’ revisit this post in about 5 years and see if South Africa is any better off for it’s redistribution methods.
Why do things have to be about race when you state some facts? Well actually the move by the SA government is entirely based on race as they want to take land owned by whites with no compensation. It’s not even like whites appeared in the last century and did a land grab, they started cultivating the land in the 1650s.
Most African nations can’t run a piss-up in brewery and SA is heading the same way. Look at the economy over the past 7 years, tanking fast, $8000 GDP/capita to $5000. That’s progress!
Don’t worry though, I’m sure the Chinese will save them with some short term explotation like they’re doing elsewhere in Africa.— ErnieC
Who gives a fuck?
Do you post projections on the state of Italy every time SuperMario gets his arse out?
I come here for the cycling
I come here for the cycling news but realise that cycling is about all I have in common with some posters here. The cynicism and stupidity in some of these posts is almost as sickening as the attack itself.
JohnnyEnglish wrote:
Agreed! Eurgh… What on earth possessed me to read the comments under this article? We should be better than this.
rjessop wrote:
Decoded, that reads as …
Liberals = clever.
Everyone else = stupid.
JohnnyEnglish wrote:
You almost equate cynicism and stupidity with having your legs cut off?
Stick to reading The Guardian …
Well, it kinda proves the
Well, it kinda proves the hypothesis that you get a larger deviation in the types of people within the same group than you do between different groups. Ergo; you find arseholes in all walks of life, of various religions, creeds, colours, races, interests, nationalities etc.
Just as not all priests are kiddy fiddlers, not all cyclists are good guys.
But, if history sets any precedence here, look at what happened in Zimbabwe after the experienced food producers (who were predominently white) were relieved of their property…
Crampy wrote:
All it proves is someone attacked him.
If you want to hook this into some sort of racist agenda, I suggest you fuck off to a more appropriate forum.
davel wrote:
Well, it kinda proves the hypothesis that you get a larger deviation in the types of people within the same group than you do between different groups. Ergo; you find arseholes in all walks of life, of various religions, creeds, colours, races, interests, nationalities etc.
Just as not all priests are kiddy fiddlers, not all cyclists are good guys.
But, if history sets any precedence here, look at what happened in Zimbabwe after the experienced food producers (who were predominently white) were relieved of their property…
— davel All it proves is someone attacked him. If you want to hook this into some sort of racist agenda, I suggest you fuck off to a more appropriate forum.— Crampy
If I had a fiver for everytime you cry out ‘waycist’ or ‘meesoginist’ I’d be a rich man. And if I had a fiver for everyime you use the f*** or c*** word I’d be even richer.
You’re the perfect example of a vile leftist totally incapble of reasoned argument. The type who lives in a Marxist dreamworld and where equality is more preferable than starvation.
Change the record Dave … why not try NAAAZI?
Pathetic.
Valbrona wrote:
Swearing offending you now, Val? You do disappoint me.
This attack has the square root of fuck-all to do with race. It isn’t evidence of cyclists not being awesome, or black people not being able to grow crops, or being more leg-sawey, or triathletes having more sawable legs.
It’s one, very specific, attack.
The spurious attempt to use it as evidence for anything is really fucking dodgy – whether I agree with the argument or not.
1. Whatever you think of South Africa, this single attack isn’t evidence of anything so tying an agenda to it is really weak.
2. If you read this news item and thought ‘hmmm, black South Africa, eh… ooh I’ve got some prejudices this fits’, you really need to find another forum to vent your bullshit.
3. I don’t need to call you a Nazi. You almost certainly aren’t one, and I don’t need to insult you – every other post of yours condemns you as a thick, narrow-minded, racist cunt way more than those words just did.
TL;DR – whatever you think of S Africa, this news item has nothing to do with it, so it isn’t an excuse to shoehorn a pet topic in like some pub bore.
davel wrote:
You’ve wasted your breath/time there. Our resident thick racist cunt it too stupid to engage in dialogue. He thinks being a racist prick is ok, but doesn’t like sweary words. The dull fucker is propably best ignored.
See you next wekend Valbrona when your mum lets you use the internet again. I guarantee he wouldn’t have the balls to repeat this shit in an environment where he can’t hide behind the keyboard.
Valbrona wrote:
If you had a fiver for everytime someone liked one of you posts then you’d have pretty much the amount of money you have now.
It’s not because you aren’t a liberal (who defines themself like that anyway?) – it’s because you’re really fucking obnoxious, cynical and yes, racist.
What the heck managed to
What the heck managed to happen to the comments on this article that led to all the above?!
O.o
Well that’ll teach me for
Well that’ll teach me for reading the comments…
Oh good, Valbrona is back.
Oh good, Valbrona is back.
The git that keeps on giving.
First time posting here –
First time posting here – just feel the need to agree that Valbrona is indeed a racist prick. That’s all.
The Aero Pharaoh wrote:
Duly noted.
However I thought the rule for first time posters on this site was for them to give a positive review of RaceView Cycles in Co. Antrim?
http://road.cc/content/forum/176025-anyone-ordered-raceview-cycles-co-antrim
http://road.cc/content/forum/215394-are-race-view-cycles-worst-online-retailer-ever