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Durban hijackers hit two VIPs
09/05/2007 22:43 - (SA)
Dries Liebenberg, Beeld
Durban - Two prominent citizens were hijacked in the city within two hours of each other on Tuesday night.
David Canning, editor of The Mercury was wounded, while a hijacker fired two shots point-blank at Esther Bawden, Inkatha Freedom Party councillor in Durban's metro council, but missed. A pothole in the pavement in front of Bawden's house in Pinetown saved her life shortly after 20:00 on Tuesday.
"Take the car, take it," Bawden said when one of the two men fired the first shot at her.
Bawden said she got out of the car with her hands in the air when two men loomed out of the dark and pointed a pistol at her. Just as the trigger was pulled she stepped in the pothole and fell.
The man climbed into the car and despite her pleas, he pulled the trigger again.
This time, she instinctively dived to one side.
Shot him through the window
Peter Pepler, another Durban metro IFP councillor, said people at a nearby sports bar heard the shots and stormed out.
One of the men gave chase in his bakkie but lost the two hijackers.
In the other incident, two men were waiting for Peter Canning when he returned home from work about 21:30.
Speaking from St. Augustine's Hospital, Canning said he had just switched off his engine to get out and open his gate when two men appeared near him.
He said: "They swung their fists in the air and shouted something."
He locked the car doors and reversed.
"I can't recall if I got the car going or if I was free-wheeling in neutral, I just remember that the car stalled," said Canning.
That was when one of the hijackers whipped out a gun and shot him through the car window.
'Crime figures are high'
The bullet, which went through his arm and into his thigh, was due to be removed in an operation on Wednesday afternoon.
The hijackers ran off.
Canning said: "I don't want to make a political statement. We all know the crime figures are high. I'm just another one of those cases."
Brian Jones of the Community Information Centre said: "Every 72 hours an average of one resident is admitted to hospital as a crime victim in Durban's western suburbs."
- Beeld
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