Wits professors in “horrific” attack at home
HOSPITALISED: Prof Anette Horn, left, and Prof Peter Horn, right, pictured at a year-end function in Johannesburg last year. The couple were attacked in their home on Wednesday morning and remain in hospital. Photo: Roz Groeneweg
Two senior professors in the School of Literature, Language and Media (SLLM) are in hospital following an attack at their home in Westdene on Wednesday morning.
World-renowned poet Prof Peter Horn and his wife, Prof Anette Horn, both of the Wits German department, are currently at Milpark hospital with severe injuries after being locked in their bathroom and stabbed with a screwdriver.
Peter Horn is being monitored closely in intensive care and will be moved to high care as soon as he is more stable.
“He has a pierced lung, but he is doing fine and didn’t need an operation,” according to Prof Libby Meintjes, head of SLLM.
Anette Horn though will require plastic surgery in the near future to repair the damage caused by “screw-driver stab wounds” on her face, neck and arms”, Meintjies told Wits Vuvuzela.
Meintjes described the attack as “horrific” and said the couple are traumatised by what has happened to them.
The attack took place just a few days after the couple’s home was burglarised in a separate incident. According to Meintjies, the couple suspect both incidents are linked.
The suspect is still at large but police are investigating and would not give comment to Wits Vuvuzela without the couple’s permission.
