A FORMER Transkei minister of finance has warned motorists against picking up strangers after he was robbed at gunpoint of money and his bakkie, which was loaded with three piglets.
Mkumbuzi Titus, 78, was gagged, blindfolded and dragged into bushes where his attackers tied him to a tree, on the road between Elliot and Ngcobo last Monday.
A former chairman of the commission on provincial government, who was tasked with facilitating the transition of South Africa’s provinces from 1995 until 1996, was heading towards Elliot, about 20km from Ngcobo, when he picked up a “smartly dressed” man of around 25 years of age.
While many people rely on hitchhiking to get around, robberies of motorists, which sometimes end in fatalities, are common in the Eastern Cape.
In August this year, former Transkei prime minister George Matanzima’s youngest son, Nkosi Qaqambile Matanzima, 63, died in hospital after being stabbed, allegedly by a man posing as a hitchhiker in Stutterheim.
In the same month, IT technician Phiwe Sweleni, from Northcrest, Mthatha, spent 12 hours tied up in the boot of his Toyota Corolla after three men jumped into his car near the Plaza shopping mall. After taking his bank card and forcing him to reveal his pin number, the men withdrew R3 000 from his bank account and abandoned the car in the Mthatha CBD.
Titus, who is now a farmer, believes his life was spared because he followed the robbers’ orders. He said he was driving from his farm in Zuurmelkfontein, in a silver grey Toyota Hilux, around 3.45pm when the incident happened.
The father of seven, who lives in Fort Gale, said he did not suspect anything when his hijacker was unable to say where he lived or was coming from. “He said he was new around town but all of a sudden he pulled a gun and said I should not give him a hard time,” he explained.
Titus said he was ordered to stop the vehicle and another robber jumped out of a red sedan which had pulled out behind them.
He said after binding him to the tree, the men took R3 000 from his pocket. “When I begged them to spare my life they said ‘we don’t enjoy what we are doing but we are hungry and there are no jobs’,” he said.
The robbers then tucked R50 and his cellphone into his socks before making off in both cars.
Mthatha police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela, who confirmed Titus’ incident, said reports of hijackers posing as hikers were on the increase. He warned motorists to stop picking up strangers or do so at their own risk. Fatyela said motorists often offered hikes to recover petrol costs but risked death or injury by doing so. —
Former minister robbed after hitchhiker turns hijacker
Mkumbuzi Titus, 78, was gagged, blindfolded and dragged into bushes where his attackers tied him to a tree, on the road between Elliot and Ngcobo last Monday.
A former chairman of the commission on provincial government, who was tasked with facilitating the transition of South Africa’s provinces from 1995 until 1996, was heading towards Elliot, about 20km from Ngcobo, when he picked up a “smartly dressed” man of around 25 years of age.
While many people rely on hitchhiking to get around, robberies of motorists, which sometimes end in fatalities, are common in the Eastern Cape.
In August this year, former Transkei prime minister George Matanzima’s youngest son, Nkosi Qaqambile Matanzima, 63, died in hospital after being stabbed, allegedly by a man posing as a hitchhiker in Stutterheim.
In the same month, IT technician Phiwe Sweleni, from Northcrest, Mthatha, spent 12 hours tied up in the boot of his Toyota Corolla after three men jumped into his car near the Plaza shopping mall. After taking his bank card and forcing him to reveal his pin number, the men withdrew R3 000 from his bank account and abandoned the car in the Mthatha CBD.
Titus, who is now a farmer, believes his life was spared because he followed the robbers’ orders. He said he was driving from his farm in Zuurmelkfontein, in a silver grey Toyota Hilux, around 3.45pm when the incident happened.
The father of seven, who lives in Fort Gale, said he did not suspect anything when his hijacker was unable to say where he lived or was coming from. “He said he was new around town but all of a sudden he pulled a gun and said I should not give him a hard time,” he explained.
Titus said he was ordered to stop the vehicle and another robber jumped out of a red sedan which had pulled out behind them.
He said after binding him to the tree, the men took R3 000 from his pocket. “When I begged them to spare my life they said ‘we don’t enjoy what we are doing but we are hungry and there are no jobs’,” he said.
The robbers then tucked R50 and his cellphone into his socks before making off in both cars.
Mthatha police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela, who confirmed Titus’ incident, said reports of hijackers posing as hikers were on the increase. He warned motorists to stop picking up strangers or do so at their own risk. Fatyela said motorists often offered hikes to recover petrol costs but risked death or injury by doing so. —
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