Cape Town - An Ottery mom and her friend are lucky to be alive after they were kidnapped and attacked in broad daylight by men posing as taxi drivers in Woodstock.
The 38-year-old woman, who asked not to be named, said she was left with multiple injuries after the horrific ordeal on November 3.
“It was just after 12pm and my friend and I boarded a taxi outside the Capitec Bank because my friend needed a confirmation of her bank account for work. We got on a taxi and the gaartjie (taxi guard) was shouting Wynberg and we were going in the direction of Observatory and we got in. We didn’t think anything of just us two because it’s a busy road and it was in the middle of the day.”
She said as they neared their stop a man seated behind her friend took out a metal rod and started choking her.
“I screamed at a man standing on the pavement because the gaartjie pulled out a knife and said: ‘Don’t say anything.’ He refused to open the door and that is when I started fighting with him. The taxi driver drove down one of the streets and they started attacking us in the taxi. They beat us with the metal rod and the gaartjie kept putting his hands between my legs and saying ‘mmmm’.”
The woman feigned an asthma attack, telling her attackers that she required her asthma pump, but instead she reached over to the front of the minibus taxi and managed to escape, flagging down passing motorists to come to her aid.
“I shouted that they have my friend and guys in a Toyota Corolla chased after them. They got them and beat them up and smashed the taxi.”
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said: “Three suspects aged 30, 37 and 41 respectively were arrested. They appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on charge of aggravated robbery.”
But the traumatised mom insisted: “This was no robbery. This was kidnapping. If we did not fight what would have happened to us? We are traumatised and in pain and want to warn other commuters.”
mahira.duval@inl.co.za