Police in Westonaria have urged residents to refrain from offering lifts to other residents, as they may fall victim to hijackings.

Westonaria station commander Colonel Jurie Ferreira sent out the warning after a 72-year-old resident was reportedly strangled after offering two men a lift on Friday afternoon.

Police spokesperson Sergeant Audrey Sefara said two men (aged 19 and 23) went to the pensioner’s house to ask whether they could be transported to a house nearby.

“While travelling to the said area, they requested to withdraw money in town. As they drove along Neptunus Road, they asked the pensioner to stop on the side of the road, as one of them needed to relieve himself. The thug who stayed behind in the car subsequently strangled the pensioner, and when the other one returned he pointed a knife at the pensioner’s stomach and forced him out of the car,” said Sefara who added that the hijackers then took off with the pensioner’s vehicle.

The men’s luck was short-lived as, shortly after robbing the pensioner of his car, they ran over a pedestrian in Botha Street and drove into a resident’s wall and gate.

Emergency services arrived at the scene and certified the 20-year-old pedestrian dead.

The men were arrested and charged with carjacking, culpable homicide and malicious damage to property. They will appear in the Westonaria Magistrate’s Court soon.

Ferreira condemned the act and labelled it ‘barbaric’.