(Mr Raj Govender)
Subry Govender
A retired Port Shepstone farmer and four members of his family are
counting their blessings after being hijacked, tortured and robbed of all
their possessions while driving to Johannesburg a fortnight ago.
Mr Raj Govender, his wife, daughter, sister-in-law and seven-year-old
grandson were waylaid between Villiers and Balfour on the evening of
Thursday, January 27.
Mr Govender of Band Farm in Port Shepstone said the incident took
place at about 8:20pm after they were stopped by a vehicle driven
by a person in a police uniform.
“We were followed by a vehicle for some distance and then suddenly
we heard a loud siren sound from a vehicle with blue lights,” Mr
Govender told me in an interview.
“My daughter, who was driving, pulled off to the side of the road. The
man in the police uniform asked my daughter why they were not
wearing masks. She told him that we were all family members and
she did not think it was a problem.
“The man then asked whether she had a drivers’ licence. While she
was trying to get the licence from her bag, the man pushed his hands
into the car and unlocked the four doors by pressing the central
locking.
“Then from nowhere three other armed men jumped into the car and
threatened us and cable-tied us.”
Mr Govender said the armed men then drove the vehicle into a
deserted spot.
“Here we were all tied up and warned that we should co-operate so
that nothing would happen to us. We were asked who owned the
vehicle, a Toyota Legend 50 and where we got the money to buy such
a vehicle.
“We were constantly threatened and assaulted while the men grabbed
whatever monies we had and all our possessions, including jewellery
and the Thali (holy) chains my wife, and sister-in-law were wearing.
“The men also took away the groceries that we were taking with us to
Johannesburg for a Kavady prayer. The grocery items were to have
been used to prepare lunches for the people attending the Kavady
prayer at the Benoni Temple in Johannesburg.
“The armed bandits even took away the shoes we were wearing.”
Mr Govender said they were held up and maltreated for nearly two
hours before the bandits drove away with their vehicle and all their
possessions.
“Suffering from shock and disbelief we then began walking towards
the N3. A security vehicle that was driving past stopped and wanted to
know what had happened and we were even walking bare feet. After
we explained that we had been hijacked and robbed of our vehicle
and all our possessions, the security official then assisted us.”
After sometime they found their way to the home of their family in
Johannesburg and the next day went to report the incident to the
police in Johannesburg.
But the police informed them that they had to report the matter at the
nearest police station where they were hijacked and robbed.
They drove about 160km to the Grootflei police station to report the
matter. At the police station they were informed that hijacking of
motorists and robberies were a common feature on the N3.
“What is really traumatising for us is that we were held up and robbed
about 10 months ago on our farm. And now we had to go through a
similar incident while driving to Johannesburg.
“It’s now just over two weeks but we have not yet heard anything from the police.”
Mr Govender said he wanted to inform other motorists to be on guard
when driving on the N3 to Johannesburg.
“The high rate of violent crime seems to be affecting us wherever we are and even when driving on the national roads.” Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com Feb 6 2022
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