'We became hungry and escaped'

2007-10-08 21:10

Pietermaritzburg - As a heavy vehicle driver stopped to drop off a young woman hitch hiker, four gunmen emerged from the bushes and held the driver and his assistant captive for about 10 hours, the Pietermaritzburg High Court heard on Monday.

The woman was picked up near Pietermaritzburg while the driver was taking 34 tons of liquor from Durban to Gauteng.

She then asked to be dropped off at an off-ramp near Mooi River where the hijack gang was waiting to pounce, the court was told during the trial of alleged hijack kingpin Jackson Khumalo.

Khumalo faces charges of the murder of a heavy vehicle driver, Johannes de Witt, who was shot dead soon after he dropped off a young woman lure near Howick.

Were forced into plantation at gunpoint

Describing the 10-hour ordeal, driver's assistant Richard Ntombela said the gunmen forced him and driver Jacob Zuma under the beds behind the seats of the truck near Mooi River at 22:00 on September 20 2004.

They spent the night under the beds while a hijacker took over the driving. They arrived at a plantation in Gauteng the next morning and taken into the plantation at gunpoint.

There they were covered with a blanket and were warned not to look at the hijackers. Zuma and Ntombela did not know where they were.

A few hours later they became very hungry and managed to untie themselves. They saw a police vehicle and reported the hijack and kidnap.

Khumalo has pleaded not guilty to murder, two charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, two aggravated robberies and kidnapping Zuma and Ntombela.

He is also to face six other hijack charges in other trials.

A woman told the Pietermaritzburg High Court last week that women were promised money to lure drivers to pick them up and to drop them off where an armed gang was waiting.

- SAPA