Lowvelders’ hijacking horror: this is what happened
MBOMBELA – If faced by armed hijackers, she’d always thought that hysteria would take hold. But when Ms Stephanie Potgieter and five friends faced this terror on their way to Mozambique last Friday, she was surprised at the strength that took hold of her. She took Lowvelder through an open-hearted account of their ordeal.
Potgieter, her friends Mr Jaco Heunis, Mr Jason and Ms Jessica Robertson and their two children, regularly travel to Ponto do Ouro. “We slept over in Kosi Bay on Wednesday night as we always do and left for the Mozambican border at 06:45 the next morning. We were so excited,” she said. They had barely departed and were still driving on a single-track dirt road when a blue Volkswagen Polo approached.
The car was driving very slowly and Potgieter and Heunis, in a Toyota Hilux, veered off the road to make way for the Polo. The Roberstons, in their Toyota Fortuner, did the same.
“The Polo stopped and two men got out of the car. They held AK47s. Three more followed. They were armed with handguns, presumably nine-millimetre pistols. They ordered us to get out of our cars,” she recounted.
“We were told that they were not planning to rape or kill us and that we had to cooperate. At this point, both myself and Jessica realised that we were surprisingly calm and rational. This was in contrast of the stressed reaction that one would expect when facing AK47s.”
The five men ordered the victims out of the vehicles and ordered them to take off their jewellery and hand it over.
They were told to position themselves on the back seats of their vehicles and the hijackers drove the vehicles to a town called Manguzi, where they turned onto a dirt road, picked up an accomplice and drove into a eucalyptus plantation.
The six Lowvelders were ordered to alight from the vehicles and four of the criminals drove off in their vehicles, with jetskis and all of their belongings.
The two remaining robbers instructed their victims to walk into the plantation.
“After a while, we stopped walking and had to lie on our stomachs with our faces down. The men kept saying that it would only be a while until we’d be free to go. Three hours later, they left. The six tried to retrace their steps, but ended up in a rural village where locals directed them to a tavern. From this moment on, according to Stephanie, nameless faces with beautiful hearts were the angels that led them home. One man gave them a cellphone and loaded it with airtime. Another man walked them back to the main road.
“We then phoned a Lowvelder, I can’t even remember who, but I am so thankful towards him. He, in turn, phoned the pharmacist in Kosi Bay, who he knew. After the pharmacist was informed of their whereabouts, a tour bus was sent to pick them up next to the road.
When they arrived at the police station, it transpired that the whole Kosi Bay had been looking for them since that morning.
“The whole place was chaos – it was just army, police, helicopters and Netstar everywhere, trying to find us. Apparently, an eyewitness had seen what happened to us and alerted the authorities,” Potgieter said.
The people of Kosi Bay took care of the six Lowvelders by offering them free accommodation and giving them something to eat. “We are so thankful. They were wonderful to us,” Potgieter said.
Mozambican friends drove the six back to Mbombela on Friday. “We were exhausted and traumatised, but we are doing better.” http://lowvelder.co.za/295963/lowvelders-hijacking-horror-this-is-what-happened/
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