| Hijack gangs sow panic [boodskap #116985] |
So, 27 April 2008 14:09 |
Daun Johnson
Boodskappe: 1155
Geregistreer: Januarie 2009
Karma: 0
|
Senior Lid |
|
|
Hijack gangs sow panic
27 April 2008, 10:52
Related Articles
* Driveway murders may be linked, say police
* Cops deny Cape hijacking ring
An armed hijacker stared into the eyes of his victim and told him:
"It's not easy."
This was no comfort for Peter Mashonga who became one of Cape Town's
latest hijack victims. The three men ordered him to hand over the keys
and walk away.
"The look in his eyes, I thought he was going to shoot me. I pleaded
with him, I said: 'Please, please don't shoot, you have the keys, you
have the car'."
The men made Mashonga walk away, which he did, expecting every second
to feel a bullet tear into his back. But the men sped off.
The hijacking early on Saturday is adding to the mounting evidence
that hijacking syndicates are operating across the city, with four
people shot dead in or beside their cars in the past 14 days.
Three of them were arriving at or leaving their homes.
In the latest incident early on Friday, Westridge resident Mashonga
was held up at gunpoint by three men as he was pulling out of his
driveway.
His car was later recovered in Gugulethu.
The police suspect groups of criminals are behind the spate of
incidents, but they have stopped short of confirming there are
syndicates at work.
A still shaken Mashonga said on Saturday an accomplice was waiting in
an old white Golf with the engine running.
"I was standing next to the car when these men came to me from
different directions; they all had guns."
They demanded the car keys and Mashonga handed them over. The men then
drove off in the two Golfs.
The car, which had a tracking device, was found an hour later in
Gugulethu.
Newspapers have reported on seven hijacking cases, including
Mashonga's, across the city in the past fortnight, but the Mitchells
Plain Community Forum says it is aware of at least seven hijackings in
that area alone in the past two months:
# Early on Saturday in Eastridge a man and his female friend were
pulled out of his car by 12 men. The men took the car but police found
it abandoned close by a few hours later.
# On April 12, Khayelitsha resident Benson Makwetu was shot in the
head just metres from his Site B home. His car was not taken but his
three passengers were robbed.
# Twelve hours later, 52-year-old Jane van Zyl was shot in the head as
she pulled into the driveway of her home in Bergvliet. Gershwin
Hartzenberg, 25, was arrested for her murder.
# The next day, Mandalay neighbourhood watch member Patrick Wilson was
shot in the head and killed during a hijacking in Morgenster Road,
Mitchells Plain
# A day later Mitchells Plain resident Patrick Abrahams was hijacked
at gunpoint by two men in Eastridge. He was not injured.The car was
recovered in Khayelitsha.
# On Tuesday, UCT professor Kevin Rochford, was shot dead in the
street outside his home in Little Mowbray as he went to move his car
into the driveway.
Mitchells Plain community police forum chairperson Abe Isaacs said on
Saturday there was a definite trend and they were convinced more than
one syndicate was operating.
* This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape
Argus on April 27, 2008
|
|
|
|
] 
Supertaal
Blog
Soek
Hulp
Lede
Registreer
Teken aan
Tuis
