Cele’s gun control changes would be ‘a Mensa move’, says hijacking victim 

“Wake Up, Bheki Cele.”

East Rand Democratic Alliance councillor Simon Lapping sent this angry message to the police minister, who wants to lower the crime rate by taking guns away from ordinary citizens.

A bloody attempted hijacking in broad daylight nearly cost him and friend Mark Jansen van Rensburg their lives on Saturday.

A bullet, that passed through Jansen van Rensburg’s leg, was recovered and found to be of standard law enforcement issue – a FMJ (full metal jacket) round used by the SA Police Service (Saps) and military.

East Rand Democratic Alliance councillor Simon Lapping and a friend Mark Jansen van Rensburg are
relieved to have survived after the latter was shot in the leg by a suspected hijacker. Picture: Supplied

Lapping sardonically pointed out the mooted changes to gun control would be a Mensa (global high-IQ society) move.

“The minister smartly wants to disarm citizens who are already losing everything, including many of their lives, thanks to criminals.

“Nobody in South Africa has protection against the perverse violent crime we face here every day. It’s pathetic and he should seriously consider his own fitness to hold office with nonsensical drivel like the disarming of defenceless people to curb crime.”

Lapping goes on to say that perhaps safety and security was too much to expect from a government that cannot fix potholes or replace light bulbs in street lights.

“We were at a friend’s gate in Pomona. The intercom was broken, so we tried to call to announce our arrival,” says Lapping.

“The next thing, there was a guy on the edge of our field of vision … waving a gun around yelling ‘give me the keys’.”

They dismissed the movement as a beggar. When shots went off, they realise what was happening, reversed out of the driveway, and drove a couple of hundred metres up the road, hijacker in pursuit.

“The hijacker faced us dead-on with what looked like a Beretta, motioning as if he was firing,” says Lapping.

“Luckily it seems as if the gun was stuck or something, we are still alive.”

Jansen van Rensburg was shot in the leg, but only realised it as things calmed down.

“I wrapped a towel and rope around his leg to slow the bleeding and opted not to wait for an ambulance,” says Lapping.

He rushed Jansen van Rensburg to the Arwyp Medical Centre.

– news@citizen.co.za