'US returned us to hijack hell'

2008-04-08 08:04

Lauren Thys

Delmas - "We want the Americans to know to what kind of a country they sent us back to."

Wentzel Herbst said: "I've had to go through another hijacking and, this time, my children were with me."

Herbst had been in the car with his brother-in-law, Jimmy Watson, when Watson was killed during a hijacking just more than a week ago.

Wentzel, his wife, Carol, and their children, Deiran, six, and Tegan, three - who were born in the United States - were visiting the Watsons in Delmas.

Three years ago, the family was refused asylum in the US, after being there for six years and had to return to South Africa.

They had applied for asylum in the US because of the crime situation in South Africa.

Just before they left for the US, Wentzel had been shot in the back during a hijacking.

Wentzel and the children went to buy food for the family who had gathered in Delmas after they had heard that Watson's daughter, Sharon Knoetze, had died in a car accident seven hours earlier.

Carol said: "My children are traumatised. They got such a fright when they saw the violence of the hijacking and when their father yanked them out of the car so quickly.

Wentzel said: "When we said we feared for our safety in South Africa, the Americans thought we were joking and said that South Africa was a perfectly safe country to go back to."

Carol said: "If it were just me and my husband, it wouldn't be that bad, but the children don't know how to process it."

When they came to South Africa, they were totally American.

"We had to teach my son (who was four at the time) not to talk to strangers because they could steal Mommy's handbag.

"Since we've been back, many of our things have been stolen."

She said of her son: "He can't sleep at night - he said he was scared of baddies and that was before the hijacking.

Her daughter had struggled to fall asleep at night since the hijacking.

The American embassy would not comment on specific cases, but according to documentation on requirements for asylum seekers, crime wasn't one of the criteria.

The fact that the children were born in the US did not make a difference to the status of the parents.

- Beeld