Robbers use house fire to get away

The home of the owner of the well-known Namibgrens Guest Farm near the Gamsberg Pass west of Windhoek went up in flames at around 02:30 on New Year's Day.

According to the Namibgrens manager, Annamarie Strydom, the farmhouse of John Rabie burned down while he and his family were on holiday at Cape Cross.

“The house burned down so quickly. Everything is destroyed and we could not save anything,” Strydom said.

The facility was fully booked, but all the guests were safe and no one was injured during the incident.

It is reported that the arsonists possibly started the fire at Rabie's house in a bid to divert attention while trying to break into Strydom's house.

“As we went to see how the house burned, they came through the bathroom window at my house. They stole cash of about N$17 000. They left everything else, even the mobile phones that were lying around were not stolen,” Strydom said.

“To cause such damage for this amount of money is terrible. This is the first time something like this happened on Namibgrens. Our year ended badly.”

She said the Nauchas police and environmental reservists were very helpful and arrested four suspects who are reportedly from the area.

JEMIMA BEUKES