Johanensburg - Former Miss SA Odette Scrooby-Joubert was robbed at gunpoint in her Bryanston home by two men on Thursday.
One man was wearing a shiny plastic wig with a blue fringe.
The 1982 beauty pageant winner, 49, was working on her computer at 8.45am when the robbers walked into her home office, with the gardener held at gunpoint.
One man struck her on the head with his gun before leading her into her room, where her four-year-old son was playing with his nanny.
“He pointed the gun against my head, right between my eyes,” Scrooby-Joubert said. “Until then I thought it was a plastic gun, but when I felt the metal, I knew it was real.”
The men demanded her jewellery and asked if she had any firearms, which she did not. After taking her valuables, the two men locked her, her son, the nanny and gardener in the bedroom.
At that point, she was able to call the police from a phone in her bathroom. The police arrived within moments but the robbers had disappeared.
Police told Scrooby-Joubert the robbers must have noticed that the phone was in use and decided to escape.
A third accomplice was allegedly waiting outside in the getaway vehicle.
Scrooby-Joubert said the fear she felt for her young son, and for her life, far outweighed any lost possessions.
“I have a bump on my head and a very sore neck, and I hear this ringing… but I’m just so grateful we all have our lives,” she said.
Scrooby-Joubert’s older son, 22, was asleep in a room on the far side of the house, and after she phoned the police, she called him to tell him to lock his door.
When the door opened into the bedroom they were locked in, Scrooby-Joubert said she was relieved to see it was her son who was letting them out.
“We live in an amazing country, but unfortunately we live in a country with a lot of crime,” she said.
The attack has made her feel vulnerable, she said, even with the two electric fences, boomed street and security guard she employs.
Her husband was out of town on business. Scrooby-Joubert also has eight dogs, and only one, Quentin, barked at the intruders.
Police told Scrooby-Joubert that a similar crime occurred in Parkmore recently. Valuable jewellery was also taken in that robbery.
The Star