Two Soweto women were shocked to come face-to-face with their alleged hijackers when they went to a police station to report the attack.
Palesa Lamula and her sister Bontle Sebeko were leaving a tavern in Phiri, Soweto, when the attack happened last Thursday evening.
“As we came out of the tavern, at about 7.50pm, these two men were standing at the car,” recalled Lamula.
They were well dressed, both in jeans, and their faces were unmasked.
The men pointed guns at both women. Lamula was pushed into the car, dropping the keys between the seats of the rented white Toyota.
“They began assaulting us, beating us and smacking us while holding the guns against our heads.”
As Lamula rummaged for the keys, her sister dropped the batch of alcohol she’d just bought. It sprayed up, wetting the jeans of one of the assailants.
With the keys retrieved, the men disappeared in the car.
Minutes later, the sisters and some family members arrived at the Moroka police station to report the hijacking.
Before they’d even entered the station, two men approached them in the parking lot. Well dressed. Both in jeans – one of them still wet. The same men who had attacked them just minutes earlier.
“They came up to us and immediately asked ‘Who hijacked you?’, ‘What kind of car was it?’, ‘Does it have a tracker?’” alleged Lamula. “We recognised them immediately.”
The men claimed they were police officers.
While her sister confronted the pair, Lamula called on officers inside the police station. The men were searched and a weapon was found on one of them.
According to provincial police spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale, the men were immediately arrested.
Further investigation revealed they were police officers – both constables.
But on Sunday, the sisters received a call informing them that the men had already been released on bail.
“At this stage the suspects cannot be linked to the crime.”
Mogale said: “The docket was perused by the public prosecutor, who declined to prosecute the case and gave instructions for further investigation.”
She said action would be taken against the officers if they were found to be linked to the hijacking.
The car has not been recovered.
Lamula insists that the officers are the same men who assaulted and hijacked her.
“This is a serious case… We identified those men. I’m positive it was them,” she maintained.