Polokwane - First he demolished a garage with the bulldozer. Then he overturned a vehicle in which his employer's wife was sitting. Now the employee, who after having visited a shebeen went on the rampage in a bulldozer, is facing charges of attempted murder. Neels Loubser, 44, an executive director of the Letaba Estate outside Tzaneen, said on Monday that his 42-year-old wife Louise had had to undergo an operation to her left leg after it was badly injured in the attack. "We got a big fright. The man sowed destruction," Neels said. The employee, who is in his forties, is in custody.

Police spokesperson Seth Magadzi said the man would appear soon in the local magistrate's court on three charges of attempted murder. Neels said the drama began at about 17:00 on Friday afternoon when the employee got into the bulldozer. Neels told the man he was not permitted to drive the bulldozer.

"We're not sure whether he was drunk or possibly had smoked dagga. He refused to get out and began driving." The man drove about 800m to Neels' house, ploughed through the electric fence and demolished the garage. The worker was heading away from the house in the bulldozer when Louise and her two daughters Arina, 16, and Celia, 13, came driving towards the house in Louise's Opel Astra. Louise did not suspect anything was the matter, as she had been unable to see the demolished garage from where she was. Louise gestured to the man, trying to ask if she could help him.

"The next moment he stormed at the car with the bulldozer. My wife wanted to reverse, but the engine stalled. She shouted at the children to get out of the car."  The children tumbled out of the vehicle as the bulldozer hit it the first time.  The third time that the man hit the vehicle, he lifted it into the air with Louise still in the driver's seat. She fell out of the car. The man dropped the car on top of Louise and drove away, Neels said. Louise was pulled out from under the vehicle and taken to the Tzaneen Medi-Clinic.

The police were called and the man was first arrested on a charge of reckless and negligent driving which was later changed to charges of attempted murder.

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