NKUZANA – Police are still searching for hijackers who seized control of the vehicle of the elder brother of Mirror’s journalist, Nthambeleni Gabara, at about 17:40 between the Goedehoop and Nkuzana settlements on Sunday.

According to Mr Aifheli Gabara, the unknown hijackers pushed a herd of cattle into the road and as he reduced speed, one of the suspects opened the door of the vehicle, pointed a gun at him and threw him out. “I saw people with the cattle while I was still some distance away, but the moment I approached the cattle, those people were no longer visible. As I was driving slowly because the cattle were just scattered all over the road, one hijacker with a hood covering the head and neck opened the door, pointed a gun at me and pulled me out of the vehicle,” he said.

Gabara, who screamed when a man with a balaclava opened his car, said that four other unknown suspects emerged from the bushes and jumped into his Toyota Corolla, a 1983 model, and fled. “As I was still frightened and shocked by the incident and looking on helplessly when the criminals drove away with my car, I started running into the bush without knowing where I was going,” he said. Gabara said that the hijackers didn’t take his phone during the hijacking. The suspects fled with his identity document, credit card and a drivers licence.

Gabara, who is a teacher at Tshimbupfe Secondary School, said that, after running into the bush, he gathered his wits and alerted his friend about the incident and phoned the bank to cancel his credit card. “My friend came to the crime scene to pick me up so that we could quickly go to open a case at the Vuwani SAPS. While on our way to the police station, we spotted the my car next to the Bottle Store at Ha-Masia. We phoned the Vuwani SAPS, who told us that they wouldn’t come because the hijacking happened outside their jurisdiction and referred us to the Hlanganani SAPS,” he said.

Gabara claimed that he phoned the Hlanganani SAPS, but they never showed up. “This is not unjustified criticism. I deplore the police’s inefficiency in performing their duties. The demarcation issue in this incident was of less significance. If a suspect can run away from the police after committing a crime in Gauteng and is spotted somewhere in our province, our policemen must leave him because he had committed the crime in the other province?” he asked. The police spokesperson in the Mopani area, Supt Moatshe Ngoepe, confirmed that Gabara had opened a case of car hijacking with the Hlanganani SAPS, adding that, while the police investigations were still continuing, Gabara’s case was also in the process of being transferred to the Vuwani SAPS.

Gabara is appealing to members of the community with information that can lead to the recovery of his Toyota Corolla with the registration FBN 164 N to contact him at 073 268 7925 or their nearest police station.