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When 55-year-old truck driver, Harry Vermaak, left his home in Windvogel, Port Elizabeth, early one Saturday morning (July 27) to go to work, he had no idea that he would become a hero.
While driving to a Transnet colleagues home for their regular lift club to the Port of Ngqura, he passed a bakkie standing on the side of old Bethelsdorp Road.
But, it was when he arrived at his colleagues home close-by that he realised something was amiss. In the distance he heard a shrill cry for help and without second thought he rushed back in the direction of the bakkie and to his surprise he found a teenage girl in distress.
"I jumped in my car and I drove towards where the bakkie was about 3km's away. When I came close I saw this youngster who was wrapped in a blanket. She said that (this) guy actually grabbed her sister and ran down (into) the bush (towards the salt pans) and he was going to rape her and kill her," Harry said.
"I said she must get in my car and we drove towards the bakkie. She jumped out and started calling out for her sister and there was no reply. Luckily, my other colleagues came in their car. By that time there were a lot of lights there and we saw this girl come out of the bush toward us," he added.
He surmised that the attacker may have seen the car lights and left the girl, aged 13.
"She had a T-shirt on and her bottom was naked. She was naked and barefoot, carrying her little pants in her hands. He said the girl told them he (the assailant) had ripped the pants off. I covered her."
Astonishingly, Vermaak told Algoa FM News that a police van had passed the scene and when they tried to flag it down the police vehicle continued to drive on without stopping.
"They didn't stop, nothing," said Harry.
Vermaak and his colleagues then took the girls, aged 13 and 14, to the Algoa Park police station where police confirmed that a case of attempted rape had been opened. No arrests have yet been made as of Friday (August 02).
This is not the first time that Harry Vermaak made news headlines.
In 2012 while working for a private transport company he was passing over Van Stadens Bridge when he noticed a car on the side of the "notorious death bridge."
He said he had no hesitation to turn around and approach the man in his car whom he said wanted to end his life. Vermaak said he spoke to the man gave him a letter to give to his wife.
In a live interview with Algoa FM at the time, Harry said the man's phone rang and he asked him to speak to his daughter. He told the man's distraught daughter that her father was on the bridge and wanted to end his life.
Harry said after police arrived they went to the Thornhill police station where he stayed with the suicidal man until 4am that morning until his family arrived.
He said over the years he has helped a number of people in distress including cutting down and saving the life of a Port Elizabeth man who had hanged himself and also helping a man in Cape Town who was trapped in his car after a very bad accident.
"I did not plan on saving lives but dangerous incidents involving other people kept on crossing my path throughout my life. I'm there to help anybody, as I have said it's not a planned thing. I just happen to be there at that needy moment. I thank God for using me as an instrument to save many people," Harry said.
The father of nine humbly admitted that he does not know whether to consider himself a hero or not but that he was grateful to be given the opportunity to help others.
"I have children as well, and everytime I see somebody I think of my own children and would someone else also save them. I don't know whether I should see myself as a hero or not. All I can say is that I am grateful that God has chosen me to be there for other people, irrespective of colour, crede or sex." said Harry.
