About Roan Gouws
Roan Gouws (1980 - 2005)
Brief overview:
Roan Gouws (24), who lived on the Bashewa agricultural holdings outside Pretoria, was shot and killed on 23rd January 2005 outside the SuperSport Park in Centurion.
"Roan and a friend, Pierre Fourie, 22, were in their car outside the stadium when an armed man demanded their money and cellphones. "It appears to have turned into a physical confrontation... a shot went off, wounding (Gouws) in the upper body. The suspect fled on foot," said Captain Piletji Sebola, police spokesperson for Pretoria. He said Fourie rushed Gouws to Unitas Hospital, where he died.
Pastor Ferdi Gouws, his wife Ronel and their daughter Jo-Marie, all staunch Christians, are struggling to cope with the murder but they are receiving support from their church and friends.
"My heart is broken. It hurts so much because it was the life of my child that was taken," said Ronel. There is nobody else I would wish this on, so I just have to accept what has happened."
Roan underwent emergency surgery, and his parents were by his side when he came out of theatre. Doctors were sure that he would recover as he was young, strong and fit. "But by 2am things started going wrong. By 6am Roan was gone," Ronel said.
Sebola said a docket involving two charges of robbery and one of murder had been opened and registered for investigation. No arrests had been made."
Brief Biography:
- Other Victims/Family
- Funeral/Memorial
- The Farm/Smallholding
- The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)
Attack Details:
- Date and time of attack
- Weapons
- Items Stolen
- Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
- Torture, Gratuitous violence
- Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.
Perpetrator details:
- Number and Descriptions
- Arrests
- Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
- Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
- Trial/Conviction
Additional Biographical Information:
Full Names:ROAN
Surname:GOUWS
Date of Birth:1980-08-05
Identity Number:8008055039080
Date of Death:2005-01-23
Place of Death:PRETORIA
Cause of Death:UNNATURAL CAUSES
"Benefit held for former coach this weekend - There will be a bands benefit concert at Howard's on Sunday, Feb. 20, from 4:30-10 p.m. Six bands will be performing. All proceeds will go to the family of BGSU rugby coach Roan Gouws. Coach Gouws was murdered while being robbed three weeks ago in South Africa. He had no medical insurance and his parents must now pay $25,000 in medical costs."
Tribute:
"Tom Forbrizzio is pushing his body to its limits to honor the memory of a slain friend and help his family in South Africa bear the financial costs associated with his death.
Mr. Forbrizzio, 21, a senior at Bowling Green State University and a member of the school's rugby club, began a 24-hour "endurance workout" yesterday afternoon as a fund-raiser for the family of Roan Gouws, a teammate who was shot to death in January during a robbery in South Africa.
Mr. Forbrizzio planned to bike 100 miles, run 10 miles, do 3,000 sit-ups, lift a total of 280,000 pounds, and perform other exercises during his round-the-clock workout, which was to last until 2 p.m. today.
Other than time for restroom and refreshment breaks, he planned to keep his body moving the entire time.
"The reason that I do all this stuff is because I can, because I have the opportunity," he said. "Obviously, Roan, he'll never have the opportunity to do something like this again. A lot of people just aren't as advantaged. It's really just about teaching myself a life lesson."
Mr. Forbrizzio said he was devastated by the death of Mr. Gouws, who played and coached for the rugby squad for about a year while living in Bowling Green.
"When I heard about him getting killed, the first feeling I had ... was this feeling of helplessness, and it's just a terrible feeling," he said.
"I wanted to spread the word about what happened, what kind of guy Roan was, because he was a great guy."
According to the Star, a newspaper in Johannesburg, Mr. Gouws, 24, and a companion were attacked after leaving a cricket match in the city of Pretoria on Jan. 21. Mr. Gouws was shot twice in the stomach and died early the next day in a hospital, the newspaper said.
Mr. Forbrizzio said Mr. Gouws' parents are struggling to pay medical bills from surgery done in an attempt to save his life.
Besides his marathon exercise session, Mr. Forbrizzio and his teammates have sponsored benefit concerts and other fund-raisers to help the family.
"We hope to be able to cover a significant amount of the hospital costs, and we're pretty confident that we'll be able to," he said.
Besides a desire to do something for his friend's parents, Mr. Forbrizzio said he has always been interested in fitness and seeing how much his body could do. Some of the other exercises he planned to do included 1,100 push-ups, 1,100 jumping jacks, 1,000 leg lifts, and a five-mile power walk.
He said if he completed all his scheduled exercises, he'd break the Guinness world record for doing the most exercise in 24 hours.
"A week after I heard what happened to Roan, I started training specifically for this," he said. "I changed my diet, ran almost every day, weightlifted, and did exercises."
Mr. Forbrizzio said that even if he falls short of his goal, he'll be satisfied with his effort.
"I know, either way, it's still a great cause, and I still did a lot of great things."
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Roan Gouws's Timeline
| 1980 |
August 5, 1980
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| 2005 |
January 23, 2005
Age 24
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Centurion, Pretoria, GP, South Africa
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