Hijackers were once again busy this weekend as three vehicles were hijacked and only one vehicle was recovered by members from the South African Community Crime Watch (SACCW) without number plates.
On Saturday, July 21, two hijackings occurred; the first one occurred at 05:45 in French Street in the Central Business District.
Mr Lwazi Mhlabane alleged that he was with his friend, Mr Njabulo Manzini. They were going to pick something up at one of the houses.
Before they left Mhlabane’s home in French Street, they stood outside having a smoke when two unknown men approached them.
Suspects were armed with firearms, they forced Mhlabane and Manzini to the ground, and they started kicking them and then took their cell phones, wallet and the car keys.
The suspects drove off in a white Ford Focus; the vehicle still has not been recovered.
On the same day another hijacking took place at approximately 08:00.
A home owner in Sky Street alleged that he was preparing to go to the Free State and he would have travelled in his silver Ford Ranger bakkie.
He allegedly parked his vehicle outside and the gate was open. He then went to the other vehicle and was approached by two unknown men, one was armed with a firearm.
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The suspect armed with the firearm took the Ranger’s car keys and drove away.
Inside the vehicle there were a couple of valuable items, such as clothes, a laptop, jewellery, cell phone, wallet and a camera.
Within minutes a call came in on the SACCW open channel on Zello of a report of an armed robbery in Highveld Park and that a silver Ford Ranger bakkie had been stolen.
Highveld Park Neighbourhood watch responder, Mr Armandus Basson was the first to attend to the scene and gathered the crucial information needed by responders from the scene.
SACCW Technical support managed to get an approximate location in Kwa-Guqa where the vehicle was.
David Wessels from SACCW then called both Witbank and Vosman SAPS requesting assistance.
Brigadier Delisiwe Motha informed Wessels to proceed to Vosman SAPS where she would arrange for the necessary SAPS support.
When Wessels arrived, Captain Maseko arranged for two vehicles to assist in a patrol of Kwa-Guqa.
Wessels was assisted by additional SACCW responders Mr Flip Opperman and Mr Juan-Piere Moore who arrived to help search for the vehicle along with SAPS.
As it was a large area to cover, they all decided to split up.
The bakkie that was recovered shortly after it was hijacked in Sky Street in Highveld Park.
Opperman and Moore were searching together, about 40 minutes later a call came through that they had located a silver bakkie, it had no number plates and matched the description.
“While driving around the area, I looked down one of the streets and noticed a silver bakkie parked near a concrete wall. We could not see if it was the vehicle we were looking for as the number plates had been removed. But we went down and forwarded the location on to Wessels and SAPS,” said Opperman.
Wessels rushed back to the location point from the other two SACCW members to provide back up.
The licence disc was scanned and it was in fact the vehicle they were looking for.
Witbank Station Commander, Brig. Sipho Mokwatlo also arrived on scene and it was a privilege for the SACCW members to be able to work side by side on this recovery.
No arrests were made but this is an on-going investigation.
“It’s is very important that the community members contact us with the correct information so that we can immediately get the SACCW Technical support involved with the information. Then I would like to thank Flip and JP for their assistance and for recovering of the vehicle. A very special thank you to Brigadier Motha and Brigadier Mokwatlo for the support on the day,” said Wessels.
On Thursday, July 19, another hijacking occurred on the Old Middelburg Road, the complainant alleged that he stopped next to the road in his white Volkswagen Golf.
He noticed that two unknown men were hitch hiking towards eMalahleni. The complainant then decided to give the men a lift towards town.
The men jumped into the vehicle and when they were close to their destination, the one suspect asked to stop the vehicle.
The suspect seated in the back seat, grabbed the complainant around his throat and started strangling him.
As the complainant and the suspects were involved in a struggle, the suspects managed to push the vehicle owner out of the car.
That is when the suspects drove off with the car and the owner of the vehicle was left stranded next to the road.
