Nicky Daniels, 39, the mother of a Grade 2 pupil at a local school, is being victimised and wrongfully accused of being a kidnapper for some reason.
Very distraught, Daniels walked into the Herald‘s offices on Wednesday, 1 June, to share her story and smash the rumours doing the rounds.
“It was a day like every other day when I drove to pick up my son from school. I sat in my car like any other mother does. I was even parked in by two other vehicles. I could have been on my phone, but that is normally what us mothers do while waiting for our children,” Daniels said.
Daniels then collected her son and went back home. At about 4pm, Daniels started receiving messages, warning her that a rumour was doing the rounds on Whatsapp and other social media, implicating her as a suspected kidnapper.
One of the messages read “There’s a woman with blonde hair, a big tattoo on her right arm, driving in a blue Hyundai with reg. no …….. She is taking photos of kids at the school. She tried to grab two school kids. This has been happening for the past two days.”
Daniels was in complete shock and devastated when she read the messages. Her vehicle’s registration number was also posted. That same evening Daniels went to the Randfontein Police Station to report the incident.
“These rumours are destroying my family.
My son is traumatised and I am going to have to take him for counselling. I was even advised to take him out of school for a week.
“He even asked me if we cannot drive another vehicle.” Daniels says that there should be a law against this type of victimisation.
In another incident, Hendrik le Roux from Klein Elandsvlei has been targeted after an article appeared in the Herald about a series of robberies that occurred in the Culemborg Park area at the end of May. In the article a suspicious white Ford bakkie is mentioned, but no vehicle registration number is divulged, but since then, his car has been spat on, and a woman even confronted him at a stop street asking him what he is trying to steal.
Captain Appel Ernst, Randfontein Police spokesperson says these reckless allegations and victimisations on social media and chat groups are causing enormous problems for innocent community members. Community members should avoid putting vehicle registrations out on social media and chat groups. Innocent people and their families are being wrongfully targeted and victimised.
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Also read:
Community attacks alleged kidnapper’s home
Man rescued from kidnappers, four arrested
Woman robbed, kidnapped, gang raped and beaten gets justice
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