Six vehicles fell victim to the highway spiking gangs last night on the N12 near Delmas in both directions.

The Middelburg Flying Squad, AfriForum’s Delmas Valke Proto Team and Delmas SAPS had a hectic night in securing the N12 and assisting robbery victims caught in the highway bandits’ reign of terror.

According to a member of the Valke Proto Team, Gino Sansovini, his team of voluntary community watchmen were busy with proactive patrols of the N12 after suspecting a night of criminal activity, when they came across a family of four, including a three-year-old child, stranded near the R42 – N12 off-ramp at 20:20 last night.

The family was left stranded after driving over a pile of rocks and had been robbed of their bank cards, cellphones, jewellery and shoes.
As the Valke members stopped to assist, they were joined by members of the Middelburg Flying Squad.

“We asked the man of the family if he could recall his Gmail log in, and managed to trace one of the stolen cellphones to the Total Filling Station One Stop close to eMalahleni,” Gino explained.

The Valke members and Flying Squad then hurried to the One Stop in the hopes of apprehending the suspects, when the CCTV control room operator informed them that the suspects, who were travelling in a white Toyota Corolla, had just left via the N12 in eMalahleni’s direction.

In their attempt to catch up with the suspects, the members came across another two stranded vehicles, roughly 3km from the One Stop, on both sides of the highway.

“We did not see the rocks and continued our pursuit when the Middelburg Flying Squad vehicle also struck a rock, forcing us to stop our pursuit. We requested backup from the Delmas Police Station, secured the area and assisted the two other victims, and when the Flying Squad vehicle was finally loaded onto a flatbed, we came across another two stranded vehicles, making it a total of five.”

According to Gino, after the members had finally set off again, yet another motorist fell victim after a bakkie struck a large pile of rocks not far from them.

As the Valke approached to assist, two suspects emerged from the bushes and attempted to rob the occupants of the bakkie, but fled on foot when they saw the members, “We set after them but lost their trail in the thick vegetation and they managed to evade capture.”

Gino said that out of the six vehicles, no cases were reported to the SAPS, meaning the police can’t investigate the incidents, “It also means that they cannot keep record of statistics.”

Gino alerted motorists to an increase of spiking incidents along the N12 during nightfall and urged vigilance.

• The AfriForum Delmas Valke Proto Team comprises of five volunteers involved in crime prevention.

• A media inquiry regarding the incident pertaining to the Flying Squad vehicle has been sent to the Provincial Spokesperson of the SAPS, but no response was received by the time of publication.