Stop for a minute and a robber gets in
He slowed his car to pass over a speed bump in the road, when suddenly a white Toyota Corolla sped in front of him and came to a dead-stop.
“While the South African Police Service (SAPS) crime statistics reported a national decline of 1.8% in car and truck hijacking and a national decline of 4.6% in vehicle theft, vehicle-related crime remains high with a total of 17 208 car and truck hijackings and 48 324 vehicles stolen in 2019,” said Ron Knott-Craig, executive operational services at Tracker South Africa in an interview with Business Insider.
On December 24, Karabo Mokoena was travelling home. He had just entered the Klipfontein area, past the NG Klipfontein Church.
He slowed his car to pass over a speed bump in the road, when suddenly a white Toyota Corolla sped in front of him and came to a dead-stop.
Mr Mokoena was forced to stop his Volkwagen Polo as well in order to avoid a collision.
“The minute my car stopped, two guys jumped out of the Corolla’s backseat. They ran over, one to my driver’s side and one to the passenger’s side, and drew their revolvers and pointed them at me. They just kept screaming ‘get out, get out!’ and tugging on my car door’s handle. I was afraid they’d shoot through the window, so I opened my door. The guy pulled me down and forced me to lie face down in the middle of the road while he and his buddy jumped into my car and sped off with the Corolla,” Mr Mokoena explained.
A second incident occurred on January 3. A motorist was waiting outside of a house in Jellicoe Street.
Two men approached the car from the front on the sidewalk, and once close enough to the car itself, drew their weapons.
The driver of the car was then pulled out through the driver’s side window and left standing on the pavement as he watched his car sped off with two strangers in it.
In both cases, the hijacking was reported to Witbank SAPS – however, no arrests have thus far been made.
