Hijacking drama: A race for her life
Eye-witness said she had just been to a shop in Industria and was driving on the service road parallel to Landdros Maré Street, on her way to Potgieter Avenue, when she witnessed the hijacking
POLOKWANE – A resident unwittingly found herself in the middle of a high-speed getaway by hijackers in the area of the corner of Landdros Maré Street and Potgieter Avenue on Thursday, just before midday.
The eye-witness said she had just been to a shop in Industria and was driving on the service road parallel to Landdros Maré Street, on her way to Potgieter Avenue, when she saw a blue Toyota Corolla with two men shouting and hanging out of the windows ahead of her.
She said the car in front of her skipped the red traffic light at the intersection of Landdros Maré Street and Potgieter Avenue.
She came to a standstill next to the blue Toyota Corolla.
She said she had an enormous shock when she saw that the two men, who were still making a commotion, were both armed. She said one of the men was wearing a white hat.
“When I saw the firearms I immediately accelerated and also sped away, disregarding the red traffic light.
“Luckily there was no oncoming traffic. There were pedestrians standing at the traffic light, though. I was driving to get away from the scene as quickly as I could in the righthand lane of Potgieter Avenue.
“A silver-grey BMW 320 with a Gauteng number plate, which had been behind me at the traffic light, tried to pass me even though there was a lot of traffic in the oncoming lanes.
“I realised I might get hurt and had to get out of the BMW’s path.
“I didn’t know if they were trying to hijack me, or just trying to flee,” eye-witness said
She said she braked and stopped dead in the road. The BMW passed her at high speed and one of the passengers was the man with the white hat who she had seen in the blue Toyota Corolla.
“The driver of the BMW was driving like a maniac and cut the corner at the traffic light when turning to the left into Genl Viljoen Street. He barely managed to avoid a collision with another car. I don’t know when the man with the white hat switched from the Toyota to the BMW. It was like a movie in slow motion. I was in such shock that I had to drink sugar water to calm down,” she said.
It later emerged that the blue Toyota Corolla had been hijacked in front of a business in Industria.
According to employees who witnessed the hijacking, three people, two men and a woman, were in the Toyota Corolla when it was hijacked.
“The two passengers immediately got out of the car when they were faced by the armed men but the driver, who was reluctant to just hand over his vehicle, was thrown out of the car forcefully,” one of the eye-witnesses, who did not wish to be named, recounted.
The hijacked blue Toyota Corolla was later found in Welgelegen near the corner of Genl Maritz and Kierieklapper Street, where another attempted hijacking, which Review reported on, occurred two weeks ago.
Polokwane police spokesperson, WO Lesiba Ramoshaba, confirmed that a case of hijacking had been opened and was being investigated.
By the time of going to print, no arrests had been made.
UPDATE: (audio): Hijacking in Polokwane
