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Three nabbed for horror hijack
05/04/2004 11:29 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Three Mozambican men will appear in Vanderbijlpark magistrate's court on Monday in connection with a violent hijacking outside the Grasmere toll plaza last week, police said on Monday.
A woman and her niece were raped and her husband was shot by a group of hijackers who intercepted them at the top of an off-ramp just outside the plaza last Wednesday. They were on their way to the Eastern Cape in their Colt bakkie with a trailer when four men in a Camry pounced on them.
The women were taken to Ennerdale and raped and the man was pushed out of his car and shot. The women were later found wandering along the freeway in shock and the man was found seriously injured.
Provincial police spokesperson, Faizel Kader, said that an anti-hijacking task team had worked round the clock and had arrested the three Mozambicans, starting with the first arrest in central Johannesburg on the afternoon of the attack.
The second was arrested in Vosloorus at the scrap dealership he owned. The stolen bakkie was found there, stripped, Kader said. The third person was arrested in Ennerdale, and a fourth person has been taken in for questioning, but has not been charged yet.
The three face charges of hijacking, rape and attempted murder.
The police are still tracking down three more people that they believe may have been involved. "The provincial commissioner (Perumal Naidoo) has congratulated the detectives, who were from the Vaal Rand, East Rand and Johannesburg units, for their excellent work," Kader said.
Meanwhile, employees of the Grasmere toll plaza will undergo lie detector tests this week in an effort to establish whether the hijacking was an inside job, the company's director said.
It has emerged that the cables running to monitors that record vehicle traffic and revenue were cut and there has still not been a clear explanation why the family took the off-ramp.
Private security has also been beefed up at the plaza, which is situated on a stretch of road south of Johannesburg which has a history of violent hijackings.
Don Jakins, the managing director of Intertoll, the company which runs the plaza, said that all employees would be subjected to polygraph tests this week, starting with staff who worked on the night and morning of the hijacking.
Police have also recovered the Camry that the hijackers used and the family's trailer.
Jakins said: "Unfortunately it appears that there may be a likelihood of someone (employed by the company) being involved. To assist the police we are taking all the measures we can and it (polygraphs) seem prudent.
"Various accusations have been made and I need to be 100% sure that our guys aren't involved," he said.
He explained that although the cables were cut, the monitors had not been functioning as they were being upgraded.
"Someone accessed a manhole without knowing the state of the cameras and cut the cables," he said.
Kader said that none of the four people apprehended were employed by the company.
N1 - Hijacking hotspot
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