Gunmen abduct elderly Soweto women

Three elderly Soweto women were subjected to a harrowing abduction ordeal after they were robbed at gunpoint at the acclaimed Vilakazi Street in Orlando West. File picture: Antoine de Ras

Three elderly Soweto women were subjected to a harrowing abduction ordeal after they were robbed at gunpoint at the acclaimed Vilakazi Street in Orlando West. File picture: Antoine de Ras

Published Nov 19, 2015

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Johannesburg - Three elderly Soweto women were subjected to a harrowing abduction ordeal after they were robbed at gunpoint at the acclaimed Vilakazi Street in Orlando West.

The women, who are all in their 70s, were returning from a wedding when they were accosted by three armed men on Saturday night. This was on the same street where former president Nelson Mandela used to live and has since been turned into a tourist destination filled with restaurants and historical venues.

On Wednesday, one of the women, who did not want to named, relayed the traumatic ordeal to The Star.

The woman said she and the two others were driving home at around 10pm when they noticed three men following them.”Two of the men jumped out of their car and came to the windows with their guns and demanded that we let them inside our car,” she said.

In fear, they obliged and “handed over the driver’s seat” to one of the men while the other took the jewellery they were wearing as well as their cellphones. She said one of the attackers insisted, while holding a gun to her head, that she give them the pin numbers to her bank cards.

“I was so scared and gave them the pins and whatever they wanted.”

She explained that the men inside her BMW X5 followed their accomplice to an unknown venue. The accomplice then got inside the vehicle with them, and together they drove to an unknown house in Phiri.

“When we got to the house the men handed us over to two other men who tied us up and sealed our mouths with sellotape.”

While the elderly women were being held hostage, their attackers went to withdraw money from one of their bank accounts. “They took about R1 500 out of my savings account because that was my withdrawal limit,” she said.

The trio also used thousands of rand from her credit card to buy takeaways and R2 000 worth of alcohol.

“One of the women managed to free herself and then untied us,” she said. Although the door was locked, it was broken, allowing the women to fiddle with the handle so they could flee.

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@Karishma_Dipa

The Star

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