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Student hijacker 'had help'
16/04/2008 10:51 - (SA)
Durban - A hijacker - who has been identified as a student - may have committed a crime with the help of fellow students, police said on Wednesday.
The student was shot dead on Monday night during a hijacking.
Inspector Solomon Mbhele said police were investigating the possibility that the dead man's university friends may have been involved in the Pinetown hijacking.
The student, 30-year-old Sbongisen Shiliza of Clermont, was shot dead while attempting to flee with the car he had just hijacked.
The two hijackers accosted a 23-year-old man in his driveway in Vivien Road, Pinetown at 20:40 on Monday night. The man had just arrived home in his Ford Fiesta and was parking his car.
"Two armed men approached him from either side of the car. They pointed a gun at him and forced him out," Mbhele said at the time.
The victim shouted out and his father - who was inside the house -heard. The elderly man rushed out to find the hijackers reversing his son's car out of the driveway.
"The hijackers opened fire on the father and the father - who was also armed - returned fire," he said.
Police said the car then struck the neighbour's fence, veered off and hit a tree on the roadside.
Shiliza was shot dead but his accomplice managed to flee. He got into a white Golf parked further down the road - and sped off.
Police found a student card on the hijacker and it has been confirmed that he was a student at Durban's University of Technology. "Right now, police will investigate if this crime was also linked to the dead man's fellow students at the university," Mbhele said.
The father and son were uninjured.
Shiliza's mother Pauline said she was too distraught to speak to the media. A close family friend, Precious Mnisi, however, spoke to Sapa on Wednesday morning and said the family was in shock.
She said close relatives had gathered at the family's Clermont home and that everyone was really surprised by what the police had told them. "This cannot be true. It's not true. Our boy is not a hijacker. We think he is being framed," she said.
"He was out with his friends that night but he is not a thief. He is a good boy and has worked hard to go to college."
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