Mr William Mkondo’s (58) car was recovered but the R18 000 he had withdrawn from the bank earlier that day was gone.
“Last Friday I went to the bank to withdraw money to pay a building contractor, I walked back to my car and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary,” said Mkondo, who had given notice to the bank prior to his withdrawal on Friday May 12, to withdraw a large amount of money, which is standard procedure.
He drove onto the N4 Highway and took the off-ramp where he then headed to Duvha Park Primary School to meet with the principal to excuse his daughter from class.
On returning to his vehicle, which he had parked outside the school grounds in close proximity to the main gate, he was approached by three men, two of which were armed.
They demanded he hand over his keys.
“I dropped my keys and ran back into the yard I was worried they wanted to put me into the car. They picked up the keys and drove off,” said Mkondo.
He returned to the principal, Mr Pikkie Hermann, who assisted him with calling the police and the car insurance.
“I managed to cancel my cards; police arrived and took my statement they then took me to Kunene where my wife picked me up. At about 16:00 that day I received a call from police saying that my car had been recovered,” said Mkondo.
According to Capt Eddie Hall, the vehicle was recovered a few blocks away from the school when the community contacted police informing them of a car abandoned in Duvha Park.
Hermann commented that the school assisted police as best they could with their investigation and that the incident was most unfortunate, thankfully no one was harmed in the hijacking.
“When drawing large amounts of money at the bank one must make an appointment at the bank, this opens the door for corruption within the bank and may lead to armed robbery,” said Capt Eddie Hall, Witbank Police communications liaison.
“People should refrain from drawing large amounts. In this day and age technology has come a long way and people can EFT, write a cheque or do an ATM transfer instead of drawing and carrying around these large amounts of money,” he added.
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