Although the police is of the understanding that it might be something else that shattered his passenger window, Mr Kopi Matshatsha is convinced that it was a bullet that hit the window.

“The window was shattered, but there was a small hole which went right through the window. A pen could go through it.

I believe that it was a bullet that went right through, because my driver’s window was open. I am lucky to be alive.”

Mr Matshatsha said he was driving from Tasbet Park in eMalahleni towards Middelburg at about 06:30 on his way to a mine on the Vandyksdrift road.

He was just past the Highveld Mall off-ramp, towards the Olifants River Bridge, when he heard a loud bang. “It sounded like a burst tyre, but it did not felt like it, because my vehicle was steady.”

Because it was still early in the morning, he did not see that the passenger’s window was shattered. He heard the wind blowing harder in his ears.

He decided to stop at the toll gate and inspect his vehicle to see what it could have been and only then saw that the window was shattered with a small hole in it.

He called the Middelburg Police and on their arrival, they told him to report the matter to the Witbank Police because it happened on the eMalahleni side of the toll gate.

Mr Matshatsha said the police did a thorough search on the vehicle and found nothing.

“There were no trucks or other vehicles on the road that could have been the cause of a stone going through the window. There were also no stones in my car after the incident.”

• There have been several robbery incidents along the N4 between Pretoria and Middelburg these past few months. In most of the instances, the criminals brought vehicles to a standstill by throwing spikes on the road and them robbing motorists at gunpoint when they stop.