WHAT HAPPENED TO BRANDON KROG?

This is a true life story of one family's head-on collision with crime in South Africa.

(PLEASE NOTE: I am NOT a racist. I HATE racism and I HATE apartheid. The fact that I mention the word "blacks" does NOT mean I am a racist. Stating true facts does NOT make me a racist and I suggest you think carefully before you send me a message stating I am a racist ... I AM NOT A RACIST, these are the facts as they unfolded on 13 February 1998)

My brother, Brandon Krog (29) was murdered on Friday the 13th of Feb 1998. Until this day nobody can say what truly happened that Friday the 13th (yes Friday the 13th). The best scenario we can figure out as to what happened that day is that after collecting wages from Standard Bank (Germiston) that Friday morning, Brandon was followed by hijackers back to his work at Leoscrap in Refinery Rd, Germiston, South Africa.

When he arrived back at work at around 12:03pm he parked his vehicle and made his way to an area of the premises, where we suspect he saw some of his staff stealing goods or something that sparked his interest as normally he would go straight into the building "knowing" he was carrying a large sum of cash. Unknown to him he had been followed from the bank by three black men and one coloured man in a white Ford Laser. Two of the black men and the coloured man followed him into the premises, we assume to rob him of the cash he had on his possession. Once they were in the premises, they opened fire on him, thinking that he was trying to flee from them.

Brandon tried to defend himself and fired all the rounds from his 38 Special in return. He was unfortunately unlucky and had been shot in the hand and the arm, and once more in his right chest. Because of the angle he was at when the bullet hit his right-chest, it penetrated both of his lungs and finally went through his heart, killing him almost instantly.

Although fatally wounded he still ran out of the yard into the main road and collapsed on the pavement at about 12:05 pm. The assailants obviously weren't sure if they had fatally wounded him or not, they felt threatened due to the commotion that had been caused, the return fire they had received and the sudden arrival of people to the scene and fled the scene without getting a cent of the money he had with him.

Paramedics struggled for over 45 minutes to revive Brandon at the scene before rushing him to the Roseacres Clinic in Germiston where I arrived at the same time as they were taking him out of the ambulance. 10 minutes later the doctor shook his head and said "there is nothing I can do". Without a doubt this was the worst day of my life.

After a week of grieving and total shock, Brandon's funeral was held on Thursday 19th February 1998 and it was attended by well over 1000 people, which showed just how much of an effect he had on people's lives. The church had not one seat open and the aisles were full of people.

In the last three weeks of his life he had been given the nickname "Miles of Smiles" by his friends due to the birth of a beautiful baby girl, Sinead, who Brandon only knew for 18 days. We also looked through hundreds of photos of him and never found one where he didn't have a smile on his face.

He was a great friend to many people and will always have a lasting effect on their lives.

Six Hours after Brandon's burial, my mother Daveena, her cousin from Cape Town and friends Jenny & Sandra along with their kids were hijacked right outside my mother's house when they were returning her home. The assailants forced them out of the vehicle with firearms and fled with the vehicle leaving an already traumatised mother, in a total state of ruin. Fortunately my mom's domestic worker Essina heard the commotion in the driveway and came to defend them, she fought with one of them and managed to throw his gun on the ground and this gave everyone else time to flee the vehicle. As a result of her bravery they only got away with the vehicle and not another Life. My mom's cousin from Cape Town had flown up for the funeral, it was her first time ever on a plane and her first time in Johannesburg for 35 years and it was most certainly the most horrifying 12 hours she has ever had to endure. She has openly said she will never return to Johannesburg for the rest of her life.

I wish I could say the story stopped there, but it does not. In the next few years following Brandon's murder my family has been subjected to even more crime ... as if that weren't enough.

My dad while on his way home in March 2001 stopped at the local Pizza shop to fetch pizzas for dinner. While waiting, some men entered the shop wielding their guns in order to rob the place, somehow a struggle ensued and my dad was shot in the face...... YES HE WAS SHOT IN THE FACE!!!!!

The bullet entered through his left cheek, went through his tongue, smashed out most of his lower right jawbone and exited through his right cheek and ended up in his shoulder where it was found only weeks later. He was in critical condition for 13 days in intensive care and is truly lucky to be alive after that. Although as you can imagine he went through a long time of incredible pain from the injuries he sustained, he lost his lower jaw bone and all the teeth there, had a sizeable piece of his tongue damaged and was left with two holes on either side of his cheek. To this day he is still having reconstructive surgery to replace his teeth and jaw bone. I truly admire both him and my mom that they can still wake up and face the world each day after all of this absolute horror.

Below is a brief list of everything I can remember that has happened "crime-wise" to my family since that date, so much has happened that it actually hard to remember everything but here goes anyway.

1) Brandon murdered in the hijacking.
2) My mom and friends hijacked in her driveway upon returning home from Brandon's funeral.
3) My wife and I had a car radio stolen out of our car.
4) A few months after the radio was stolen, some thieves lifted our gate off the tracks and took one of our cars during the night.
5) We had two other cars belonging to clients of my wife's dancing studio that were also stolen whilst the people were having their dancing classes.
6) My dad's business Leoscrap (where Brandon was shot) had several break-ins and a lot of expensive equipment stolen each time.
7) My dad's vehicle was broken into and the radio stolen.
8) I had my laptop and briefcase stolen out of the back of my vehicle.
9) My best friend Mike Whitwam was killed in a hit and run incident. A driver of a truck decided that cyclists just get in the way, drove over him and headed on home. Mike had always been a very close friend to me and had become a big brother to me after the loss of my own brother Brandon.
10) My dad was shot in the face in a pizza shop and spent 13 days in intensive care.
11) My dad had a disagreement with some guy on the highway who was tailgating him, the guy followed my dad until my dad stopped, this idiot got out approached my dad and punched him a few times in the face ... my dad is 65 years old and this guy was a young punk about early 30's. This action dislodged the metal plate that had been implanted as a replacement for my dad's missing jaw bone.
12) My wife and I whilst shopping one Saturday in Game Stores in Midrand, suddenly heard gun shots. Patrons in the store started screaming and running all over the place, fear stricken (as you could imagine) we hid behind some fridges as this is the part of the store we were in. It turns out that some guys decided to rob the Fidelity guards who came to collect the stores cash for the day, after being kept in the store for about 45 minutes they slowly let patrons of the store leave but were searching everyone on the way out as the ones who tried to rob the guards were still in the store.
13) My mother was shopping at Shoprite Checkers in Lambton, Germiston and pretty much the same thing, gun shots in the store and luckily some of the employees rushed as many patrons of the store (including my mother) into a secure area at the back of the store, again another cash heist.
14) My mom and dad's gate was lifted off its tracks and my dad's vehicle stolen during the night.

I have told this story to many people since that horrible Friday when Brandon was shot and this all started and thousands of people have visited this web site and there have been people during this time who have found this to be unbelievable. When I sit back and look at this whole story I too sit back and think ... how can this happen ... to one family? Believe me it DID indeed happen, all of it. We have the emotional scars and police docket numbers to prove it.

My wife and I left South Africa as we knew that the longer we stayed in South Africa, the more chance there was of ourselves becoming statistics too. Brandon's widow Colette and daughter Sinead also left South Africa. However my wife and I returned to South Africa as we sorely missed our home land, the country we were born in. It took a lot for us to realise that, despite all the hardships we had been through, we still wanted to live (and rightly so) in our own country. South Africans in their droves are leaving this most beautiful country because of one thing FEAR. Well I simply will not be slave to that fear anymore and more South Africans need to start having the same attitude, because when you leave here out of fear, the criminals have WON.

This is just what has happened to "ONE" South African family. But believe me there are hundreds and thousands of families in South Africa who have had similar horror stories.

For the traveler to South Africa - South Africa IS a beautiful country ... Make no mistake about it. But you have to be extremely careful if you decide to visit and tour South Africa, primarily the big cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

Preferably go with a reputable tour company,
- stay in large groups
- do not carry large amounts of cash with you
- do not wear flashy jewelry or watches
... And
- WATCH YOUR BACK!!!

Lots of tourists to South Africa have themselves been victims of crime, some even murdered themselves simply because they are complacent and do not believe something bad could happen to them. It can happen if you do not watch your back every second of the day. Maybe one day the government of South Africa will truly start curbing the crime and bring back serious punishment for violent criminals ... until such time, the criminals run South Africa ... and the government continues to turn a blind eye most of the time !!!! I also caution people NOT to take the crime statistics released by the Minister of Safety and Security seriously at all. Statistics of any nature are JUST THAT ... statistics!!

Statistics:
- are not accurate
- are easily manipulated
- can be presented in such a way as to fool anybody into believing them
- do not represent a TRUE picture of what is going on.

Thank you for taking the time to read this story.