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Crime plagues business
Woman from Virginia in despair after being a victim of multiple robberies Alet van der Walt aletta.vdwalt@volksblad.com
Ouranios and Roula Papagapiou at the spot where Ouranios was shot in the stomach during an armed robbery in Saaiplaas, Virginia, in 2012. Ouranios had rushed to help his wife, who had been confronted by the armed robbers, when he was shot. Photo: Alet van der Walt
our cash and my bank cards. “Ouranios was admitted to a private hospital in Welkom which refused to operate before we paid a R30 000 deposit. “My husband was laying there, dying, while the hospital waited for money,” she says. The couple was fortunately assisted by friends who brought money to the hospital.
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Ouranios’ medical costs amounted to more than R200 000. His intestines were damaged when the bullet penetrated his stomach from left to right. Within four months of this crime, the liquor store was broken into four times. On 13 June 2014, while Ouranios was still recovering from the shooting incident, the family was robbed at their home. Roula was with her
husband in the main bedroom when a man entered. Another man entered the room holding a gun to their teenage daughter Christiana’s head. “They forced me to open the safe. They took all my jewellery, even the things I was wearing. We were ruined emotionally and financially. “After this incident my son Harry, who is a medical doctor, and my older daugh-
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A Virginia woman who has repeatedly been the victim of serious crime in her community, finds little consolation in the heavy sentences received by two criminals who shot her husband in the stomach and robbed the couple at gunpoint in 2012. The men were sentenced in the Welkom Regional Court on Tuesday, 12 June (see story on p 2). It is almost six years after the robbery in Saaiplaas, Virginia, but Roula Papagapiou (59) still trembles when she talks about the two robberies and numerous burglaries her family has suffered at the hands of criminals. The first incident occurred on 16 November 2012. Roula and her husband, Ouranios (71), were locking up their new liquor store in Saaiplaas. When Roula walked to their vehicle, she was confronted by an armed man who demanded money. She handed over the day’s takings and her purse. The robber still had the gun to her head when Ouranios saw what was happening. He punched the man in the face and the robber shot him in the stomach. Roula says she felt the incident was her fault, as she had been the one whose idea it was to open the store in Saaiplaas. She immigrated to South Africa in 1979 and Ouranios in 1974. They are of Greek descent. “We did not have a medical aid. The robbers had taken all
ter Stephanie insisted that Christiana go to live in Gauteng where it is safer,” says Roula. “I had to let my young child go because it became too dangerous in Virginia. “The children wanted us to close the shop, but we had to pay for Ouranios’ medical costs and Christiana was still a minor who depended on us,” she says. Three months later (September 2014) a car which Roula recognised was used in an attempted hijacking. She was on her way to drop off an employee when a vehicle blocked the road in Virginia’s central business district. Roula managed to escape, but the criminals followed her to the local police station. On their way they were involved in an accident with a bus. Roula says she has lived a nightmare existence every day since the robbery in 2012. She has received counselling and medication. She struggles to sleep and says fear is her constant companion. The couple still has the shop and they say it is difficult to sell because the area is too dangerous. The shop suffered another burglary in 2017 and it seems dealing with crime has become part of doing business in Virginia. Roula says the local police are helpful and often visit the shop, but she has lost her faith in the system. After the last incident a man was caught with empty liquor bottles marked with their store’s price labels. The man was acquitted.
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