E-hailing taxi driver held captive for almost 15 hours after accepting Ruimsig fare

E-hailing drivers are often at the mercy of their customers as they play a game of stranger roulette.

A harrowing ordeal may prove to be the final act of a four and half year journey after an e-hailing taxi driver spent almost 15 hours under the watch of armed men. John, who is afraid of using his real name as the perpetrators have his personal details via his cellphone, accepted a ride on Monday morning and once arriving at the proposed destination, would not see daylight again until Tuesday.

Collecting his supposed client at 05:00 from a petrol station at the bottom of Doreen Road, the passenger would quickly add a stop along the way via the app. The man told John that he was collecting his girlfriend but the driver says he got an eerie feeling when they collected an imposing-looking man who claimed to be the girlfriend’s brother. As they arrived at the agreed address in Sharpville, the man in the back seat pulled a gun on the driver before his accomplice followed suit.

Also read: Florida pizzeria assault and kidnapping accused sentenced to 18 years imprisonment

The attackers bound John’s hands and feet, tied a spandex blindfold tightly around his face, and placed a hood over his head. They forced John into the back seat, placing him in the foot area while the large man pinned him down with his feet. At least two other men entered the car before they drove around for several minutes, stopping at a private residence where they took John inside and sat him down in the shower with his hands behind his back.

John knew he was in a private home as he could hear children playing in the house and in the yard, smelling the cooking of a woman as well as hearing her movements as she went about her chores. While afraid for his life, John relayed that his captors were accommodating, not harming him at all but allowing him to go to the toilet whenever requested, giving him painkillers, and feeding him vetkoek.

Also read: Child kidnapping prevention tips for all ages

As sunset came the men assured him that if he cooperated he would be sleeping off the ordeal and around 22:00 they put him in a Volkswagen Polo and dropped him on the side of the road. Still bound with cable ties, pedestrians came to John’s aid, escorting him on foot to Jabulani Police Station which was only a few hundred metres away. John opened a case at the station before contacting his cousin who came to fetch him.

The man ordering the ride had 60 rides marked on his profile which John would have considered safe. Feeling now that it could have been a stolen phone, John’s main concern while sitting on the cold concrete shower floor in blindfolded darkness was the possibility of his assailants being free to use his vehicle and e-hailing profile to freely commit crimes.

The company John was affiliated to were given John’s profile details and is in the process of confirming if any rides were accepted between 06:00 and 21:00 on February 6. John went back to the filling station where he collected the first of his attackers with the petrol attendant allegedly claiming this was not the first incident of this nature.

Jarred but recovering, John has lost some skin on the bridge of his nose from the blindfold being tied tight but is uninjured except for a stiff back from sitting with his hands behind his back for the duration of the ordeal. Having enjoyed his time as a driver he admits to a few close calls in the past but certainly feels this may have been his last ride.