“THANK you for your money, God bless you.”
These words were said to a 39-year-old Edleen mother during an eight-hour ordeal when she was hijacked in Van Riebeeck Park on April 11.
The mother of two managed to escape with her life after her assailants left her in the veld where they had kept her for close to eight hours.
“I was driving on Soutpansberg Drive to Vleis Fabriek on Elgin Road at about 4pm when the light in my car, telling me my boot was open, started to flash. I stopped on the right hand side of the road,” she said.
When she had finished closing her boot, she felt a gun in her side.
“He said I should listen carefully and get back into the car. He would direct me to where I was to drive. He walked beside the car with the gun aimed at my head. I drove down towards the stream not far from where people had their church. When we got there, there was another one waiting and he immediately smashed my window. They dragged me out of the car,” she recalled.
That was when her eight-hour ordeal started. The two men dragged her through the water, made her lie down on her stomach and tied her hands behind her back. They went through her handbag to look for valuables.
“They kept shoving my bank cards in my face, asking how much money each account had. The one who initially stopped me with the gun noted down the pin numbers in his cell phone. When he had taken all the cards and pin numbers, he left and I stayed behind with the other one. “What I found strange was that they put a jacket over me and used a security bib to cover my head,” she said.
While she stayed behind with the one man, he started to make sexual advances at her and started to touch her inappropriately, telling her she could negotiate her freedom in return for sex.
“I had to think quickly and figure out a way to deter him. I started talking to him and asked if I could call him Frank, as I did not know his name. I told him I was Francinah.
“As strange as it was, we began talking and I was able to talk him out of raping me. Then his friend came back and started kicking me in my side, swearing at me, saying I was a liar and thought I was clever.
“I had mistakenly given him the incorrect pin number and he thought I did it to trick him. He started to pull my pants down, telling me they were going to teach me a lesson,” she said.
She explained to them she had forgotten the pin number had changed and gave the correct one. She began to pray out loud for them. They calmed down and stopped.
“I asked if they could untie my hands as my wrists were sore. They did but tied my feet. The one I called Frank then left to withdraw the cash. I asked the other guy if I could call him Dan and although he was more aggressive and abrupt, he said it was fine.
“I asked him if he was sure whether his friend would return with the money or just leave us both there. I think I got him thinking because soon after that he took the jacket and went to go and look for him. I took my chance at escaping,” she said.
She managed to shuffle towards the railway line, jumped over the tracks and made her way towards Pretoria Road.
“I fell into a ditch. It must have been close to midnight and the clouds had covered the moon and without my glasses I’m virtually blind. I eventually got out of the ditch and tried to flag down cars on Pretoria Road but nobody stopped. I made my way towards Palmiet Street to find help there,” she explained.
At the third home she tried, she eventually got assistance from a family that was shocked to see the state she was in.
“The woman came out in her gown and started to cry when she saw me. I was bloody and full of weeds and grass. I asked them if they could call my husband, who must have been worried sick at that time. He came and took me home,” she said.
When they checked the SMSes from the bank, the men had withdrawn close to R10 000 from their accounts. They also took her wedding ring and bracelet. It will cost about R50 000 to repair her car as it was damaged while she was driving it down towards the stream. The part that covers her engine at the bottom was dragged off and will have to be replaced.
“I’m grateful for God’s grace upon me during that time. Anything could have happened to me as no-one would have known where to find me. If he wasn’t watching over me, I doubt this would have turned out the way it did.
“I would like to warn people who travel near there to be extra careful as these guys are still out there. I also hope the municipality will look into cutting the grass because I don’t think others would be as fortunate to escape like I did.”
