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Hijack kingpin gets life
05/04/2008 08:43 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Hijack kingpin Jackson Khumalo, 38, was jailed for life on Friday for the murder of a driver of a hijacked vehicle, plus 48 years for counts associated with two heists.
Khumalo of Pietermaritzburg is already serving 20 years in jail imposed in March for another hijacking committed during April 2005.
Judge Kevin Swain said in the Pietermaritzburg High Court that Khumalo was in control of hijackers, although he operated from a distance.
"He trained members of heist gangs to carry out the crimes."
Khumalo was the go between organising for the drivers of hijacked vehicles to deliver stolen goods to a Johannesburg buyer named Paul.
Swain said the 2003 murder of heavy vehicle driver Johannes de Wet of Bloemfontein, shot dead by a member of his gang, had no effect on Khumalo's behaviour.
He embarked on a very similar heist in which a driver and his assistant were kidnapped near Howick, tied up and bundled under the back of the truck where they spent the night.
In the morning, still tied up they were put into a plantation in Gauteng.
They must have suffered great terror for many hours as they did not know what their fate would be.
The modus operandi of Khumalo's gang was to have two women hitch lifts from heavy vehicle drivers between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
When the truck arrived north of Howick the women would ask to be dropped at a certain spot where the gang was waiting to pounce on the driver.
De Wet was shot dead when he realised he had been lured into a trap and tried to drive away. He was driving a load of ice-cream valued at R137 000 to Johannesburg.
In the second incident the two victims were driving a load of liquor valued at R330 000 to Johannesburg.
Swain said these heists had serious implications on society and in the economy.
- SAPA
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