A Pretoria man lived to tell the court about his recent harrowing hijacking which ended with police arresting his alleged hijackers.
This was heard at the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court where two Alex men were remanded in custody pending further investigation for a car hijacking they alleged committed in Pretoria at 7.30pm on 4 August.
The court heard that the suspects, David Baloyi and Philip Huma, allegedly hijacked the 42-year-old, self-employed caterer, Christopher Motlaki, after he stopped his Toyota Avanza at a robot in Attridgeville.
One of them was said to have jumped in front of the vehicle and pointed a gun at the victim forcing him not to drive off. The other is said to have opened the driver’s door and forced the victim to the passenger seat.
The suspect with the firearm also entered the vehicle through the driver’s side with his colleague moving to the passenger side and pressing the victim onto the floor of the car. They tied the victim’s hands with shoelaces and covered his head with cloth as they sped off with him in the vehicle.
At one point, the hijackers are said to have talked about shooting the victim but failed after the victim allegedly heard the gun jam. Also, the victim claimed to have heard his hijackers talk with another person on the phone who they later picked up, before driving off at speed.
After a while, the victim heard gunshots and the vehicle stopped. The cloth over his head was removed, to his relief, by a Metro officer who pulled him out of the car. He also claimed to have seen other officers arrest two of the alleged hijackers, with one injured after jumping out of the moving vehicle shortly before it stopped in Marlboro. The third was said to have escaped. The men were taken to the Alexandra Police Station cells after they were searched and found with two cellphones, one a Blackberry cellphone worth R3 000, and R400 in cash.
The gun, loaded with six bullets, was also recovered and the men failed to produce a licence for the firearm.
The arrest was aided after the vehicle’s tracker system reported it driving out of its radius. The vehicle, damaged on the front and side, was returned to the owner.
