Nkangala District Municipality manager Maggie Skosana, who is wheelchair-bound, often calls on Gugu Mtsweni to transport her to work.

The trips are usually a straightforward commute, but at around 08:00 on October 20, things were much different. The friends arrived at the gates of the municipality, where they were pulled over by an unmarked vehicle with blue lights, occupied by their would-be kidnappers who posed as police officers.

One of the kidnappers told Skosana that she was being arrested and would be taken to her house, where a supposed raid was underway.

He told the women to move away from the gate to spare Skosana the ’embarrassment’ of being arrested in front of security and municipal staff.

When Skosana told him to follow her into the municipal premises as her arrest would make national headlines anyway, a second man armed with a rifle got into her car.

The women were driven towards the Middelburg Mine ‘where we were both dragged out of my car, ordered to put on police balaclavas and made to lie on the laps of the kidnappers while they were driving’.

They were taken to a first location where Skosana handed the kidnappers the Pins to three of her bank accounts as well as her iCloud passwords. The kidnappers then phoned Skosana’s husband with demands for an undisclosed ransom.

The women were taken to a second location on the same day where they were locked in a room with only a mattress.

“Every time I would need to go to the loo I’d call them and they’d carry me to the bathroom, faces covered, and back to the room again,” Skosana says.

The women were never mistreated or threatened and food was brought to them by the kidnappers with their faces fully covered. “They would also order us to cover our faces,” Skosana adds.

On the seventh day, the women were driven to a bushy area where they were tied up and left in the brush. Mtsweni managed to free herself and flagged down a taxi driver, who located police on patrol.

“By this time my trust in anything police-related was shot, and I thought as we were driving to Diepsloot Police Station that our release was a hoax and that we’d be taken back to the room.”

Skosana says the motive behind the kidnapping has not been determined.

She did, however, reveal that at no stage was she interrogated over municipal tenders, supply chain management policies or any other municipal functions. “They told me I had many enemies,” Skosana says and adds that she has no clue who these enemies could be.

“I was told that I was shadowed by my kidnappers for 12 months.”

Skosana says she’s not aware of any ransom payments and added that money to the value of ‘around R1 000’ was only drawn from one of the three accounts she provided Pins for.

Skosana lauded Mike Bolhuis and his Specialised Security Services team for their around-the-clock investigations which, she believes, contributed to their release.

“They told us today you’re going home, and here we are.”

She refuses to speculate on the possible motive behind the kidnapping, saying ‘investigations continue’.

Her husband declined to answer specifics of the conversations with the kidnappers ‘as it forms part of the investigation’.

Skosana thanked everyone for their prayers, saying ‘it was seven days of hell but faith pulled us through’.