Free State trucker killed after stopping to fix puncture

A long-distance truck driver from Memel in the Free State was stabbed to death on the N11 between Ermelo and Amersfoort at around 19:00 on Friday after he stopped to change a flat tyre.

According to TimesLIVE, Jan Stickling, 58, who worked at KRM Plastics, was making his way home with an empty load when the incident took place.

He had reportedly just finished offloading a delivery of polythene water tanks to eMalahleni after a trip to the company’s factory in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal.

Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said Stickling was unscrewing the wheel bolts when a group of me armed with sharp objects attacked him. The attackers took his shoes, glasses and the truck keys.

Hlathi said Stickling had earlier let one of his colleagues in Newcastle know that he had a flat tyre.

Lindi Kluge of KRM Plastics told TimesLIVE that just after 18:00, her husband, Ernest, who owns the business, received a call from Stickling to say that he was fetching a new tyre when two men walked past and stole the jack.

Ernest then reportedly asked a colleague in the area to take Stickling a new jack so he could change the tyre and be on his way home.

Kluge told TimesLIVE that the spare jack arrived at around 20:00.

‘Horrible scene’

“Our employee arrived to a horrible scene. The poor man had to see it. The factory – everyone is in shock. You never think it will happen to someone you know.

“Poor Jan was just trying to get back home,” Kluge reportedly said.

According to Netwerk24, Stickling’s daughter, Janet Swanepoel from Wolmaransstad, said her father was a strong man who worked hard for his loved ones.

Janet reportedly said her son, Dale, 3, was still asking when they would see their grandfather again.

“It is difficult to accept that my father is so dead. It is difficult to say that my father was killed,” she reportedly said.

Stickling reportedly previously worked as a detective in Wolmaransstad and later started his own ambulance service. He worked as a truck driver for the past eight years.

Hlathi said no one was arrested.

– Compiled by Riaan Grobler

NEWS24.COM