'Race plays a role in hijacking'
2003-10-16 22:40
Johannesburg - Research into hijackings in Gauteng found that the choice of a victim was determined by "race hatred" in 30% of cases.
The report by Technikon SA's department of public safety and criminal law claimed that victims, whose "cultural group" differed from that of the hijacker, "experienced more violence", despite obeying the hijacker's orders and not resisting.
Rudolph Zinn interviewed 30 convicted hijackers in Gauteng prisons for his research. These convicted criminals performed 423 hijackings over a period of four-and-a-half years.
The report said that 56% of these hijackers did not care who the victims were. "There was however a trend where 30% of the black hijackers targeted only white victims.
"One respondent said that they never hijacked black people because the victim would visit a sangoma or inyanga and will use muti to punish the hijacker."
Zinn said that most of the hijackings (93%) mentioned in the report happened between 1995 and 1999. "It is therefore possible that there has since been a change in race relationships."
He also found that in 89% of the cases, hijackers did not care about the gender of their victim. 70% indicated that, if they had a choice of two similar vehicles, they would rather choose the one with only one occupant.
In 85% of the cases, the victim was left on the scene without any serious injuries. In 11% of the hijackings, the victims were shot because they did not obey the hijackers' commands.
Up to 37% of hijackers prefer not to shoot the victim in the car, because the car must then be cleaned before it can be sold.
The report said 93% of hijackers would rather shoot their victims than put their own lives in danger or be arrested. One of the respondents said that bystanders and eyewitnesses, who try to intervene during a hijacking, would be shot.