Kroonstad - Free State police were searching for a gardener who attacked and robbed his employer in Kroonstad, an official said on Friday.
The incident happened last Friday when the man demanded his salary, said Captain Stephen Thakeng.
The 53-year-old woman was inside the house while the gardener, who worked for her for more than a year, was busy in the garden.
Her daughter brought an undisclosed amount of cash to her to pay other employees working for them.
After the daughter left the house, there was a knock on the kitchen door and the woman saw it was the gardener and let him in. He was carrying an iron stick.
“He demanded his salary and she explained that he is usually paid by her husband who was not at home at that moment,” said Thakeng.
“Then he hit the complainant with the iron he was holding on her back and pushed her in the office situated inside the house.”
She was forced on a chair and both her hands and feet were tied up with electrical cables.
Then he took all the money and left the premises.
A case of house robbery was opened.
Thakeng said the employer did not have the identity document of the gardener and could not provide the police with his residential address.
Police later established the man was from Lesotho.
“Home owners are sternly warned, when you employ anyone to work in your space, ensure that you make a copy of his or her identity document and accompany him or her to his or her residential address to ensure that he or she stays there,” he said.
Sapa