Durban - Moments after a father of two was hijacked, he managed to send an SMS to his teenaged daughter – “help, hijacked”.
She saw it only four hours later, when she returned home from school and switched on her cellphone.
The use of cellphones during school hours is prohibited at most schools.
Leon van Rensburg, 52, of Alfred Road, New Germany, was last seen on Tuesday at 9am, when he left the Hillcrest offices of the company he works for.
His distressed wife Shirley told the Daily News he had dropped her at her workplace at 8.15am.
Van Rensburg was a technical service support specialist for a communications company and travelled extensively, she said.
The family realised he had been taken by hijackers only when his daughter arrived home from school. She switched on her cellphone and found a distress SMS from her father.
“Help, hijacked,” it read.
She alerted her mother, who contacted Pinetown police. The case has been transferred to Hillcrest police for investigation.
KZN police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane, confirmed that a case had been opened at Hillcrest. He said the victim was hijacked in Frazer Road, Hillcrest.
“We just want him to come back home safely. His safe return is our priority,” his wife said.
Adriaan Bekker, of the South African Community Action Network, said Van Rensburg was driving a white Toyota Tazz, registration number NU 11880.
Bekker said the SMS had been sent at about 10.41am.
Van Rensburg is 190cm tall, weighs 80kg, is thin and has brownish-grey hair.
Anyone with information should contact their nearest police station.
Friends, family and concerned community members have started a prayer chain on social networking sites for Van Rensburg’s safe return.
This is the third hijacking in the past week in which victims have been taken hostage.
Two Durban mothers were hijacked in separate incidents, taken on terror rides and held for hours before being freed.
Dorothy Carlyle was hijacked in her silver BMW in Cadogan Drive, Durban North.
Ten hours later she was found in the boot of her car in KwaMashu.
She was assaulted and stabbed twice on her legs.
Cash was withdrawn from her bank account.
Ugeshnie Govender, 34, endured a 16-hour hijacking ordeal which ended when she was pushed out of the moving vehicle.
Govender, 34, had left her Silverglen home at 9.40am to fetch her two teenage children from a school in Crossmoor, Chatsworth, when she was accosted by two gun-wielding men.
She was pushed out of the car in Rossburgh and managed to contact her husband from a garage.
Daily News