IT was in the early hours of Friday morning that an Umbilo hijack victim who had been stabbed and beaten, cried for help with little hope that anyone would hear his cries and come to his aid. But Clement Matasane was wrong, and within minutes he was surrouned by a host of emergency and rescue services.
Recalling the terrifying experience, Matasane, told Berea Mail, he had regarded Umbilo as a “stable and safe” place to live in, since moving into the area last October, until Friday morning, when he was attacked by two knife-wielding men. “I was preparing for a trip in the morning and went to take my car out the garage. When I came to park the car I spotted an unfamiliar white car. There was a lot of garbage around so I think the two suspects could have been hidden among the bin bags. I parked the car in front of my flat and switched off the engine and had just taken the key out and was about to get out the car when they came at me. They just shouted “Give! Give” I tried to close the door but they were in. I tried to fight them off, we struggled for a bit and then I felt a sharp pain in my side and saw they had stabbed me with a screwdriver. I kept fighting and the shorter man held a gun to my head, probably because I continued fighting them off and they probably thought I might overpower them. I felt another hard stab and that’s when they pushed me out the car,” he explained.
Clement, a research administrator at UKZN, recalled hearing gunshots before losing consciousness because of the amount of blood he had lost from the stab wounds.
A community member, Mariska Barnard, heard Clement’s shouts for help and noticed the incident through her window. Through the use of the KZN Community Assist and Disaster Management Whatsapp group, it took just five minutes for her to round up police and emergency services to assist the injured man.
Garrith Jamieson, operations director for Rescue Care, said paramedics were called to the scene at around 5am. “The man was allegedly hijacked and stabbed. We stabilised him and transported him to hospital,” he explained.
Clement sustained deep stab wounds to his left arm and right abdomen as well as numerous gashes and bruises after his fight with the hijackers. “I just want to say thank you to the KZN Community Assist and Disaster Management team for everything they did, especially Mariska, who heard me when I screamed for help, Karin, who was there with me in the dark within minutes and Mark for for arranging all the emergency services to help me and recover my car. The support I received was truly amazing. It’s a classic case of community coming together to help when I was in trouble and danger,” he said.
Karin Dreyer, a KZN CADM volunteer who was at Clement’s side in less than five minutes was happy to see him up and about back at work. “It’s great to see that he’s alive today after seeing him on Friday. We are here to help anyone in the community who is in trouble. In situations like these, you don’t think twice and time is imperative that is why the Whatsapp group is so valuable.
Mark Lombaard, director and founder of KZN CADM said incidents like these was the reason the group was started. “We need such community participation to create better and safer communities to live in. Besides doing patrols our What’sapp group assist wherever they can. Just last week we had a woman break down at a shopping centre quite late in the evening and our members were able to assist and get her safely home. This is what it’s all about, helping each other,” he said.
Lombaard KZN CADM, is appealing for more volunteers and sponsors to get on board to assist the community safety initiative. If you would like to get onto their Whatsapp community group contact Mark with your Name, Surname and Address on 0725126722.
