Pietermaritzburg - A young mother recalled the hours-long trauma of a hijacking and robbery in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday.
A group of men abducted her as she was going home from work, manhandled her into the back of her car, held her captive for hours, threatened to kill her and abused her at gunpoint.
They robbed her of her car and of bank card. She gave them its number and they emptied her account.
She was eventually forced out of her car in teeming rain and winter cold at a strange place.
The victim, Nombusa Mngomezulu, said that during her ordeal she often cried in fear while pleading for her life, telling them that she had a young child.
The offences against her were committed in June 2013.
She said that because of the lapse of time since the incidents and the fact that some of her kidnappers wore headgear and the light was low at the time she could not identify any of the accused in the dock.
They are Nhlanhla Mkhize, 23, Nkosinathi Mkhize, 22, and Xolani Shezi, 20, of the Stanger area of KwaZulu-Natal.
However, there will be evidence that places some in possession of her car and in relation to other offences against her.
The men are also accused of two murders, robbing her, two other robberies and the attempted murder of three policemen during a shoot-out.
The trial continues next week.
Sapa