Nine people appeared in the Ficksburg Magistrate's Court on Wednesday in connection with the assault of two women, one disabled, on their Rosendal farm in the eastern Free State last month.

Police spokesperson Sergeant Mmako Mophiring said the group appeared in court for bail applications, which were denied.

The matter against the seven men and two women, who include Lesotho and Mozambique citizens, was postponed to 7 July.

They allegedly robbed a domestic worker of her cellphone at gunpoint on the farm on 8 June. They then went into the farm house where they found a disabled 53-year-old woman and her 77-year-old mother.

The women were tied up with telephone cables.

Police said at the time that the elderly woman was assaulted with a gun and sustained chest and facial injuries. The younger woman was pistol-whipped in the face.

The robbers stole firearms and cellphones before they fled.

Shortly afterwards police arrested seven suspected robbers. Five of them were men and two were women.

The two guns stolen from the farm house were recovered.

Mophiring said one of the victims in the attack, the disabled woman, died on Sunday. A post mortem would be conducted to determine the cause of death.

Sapa

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