Johannesburg - Three matriculants from Elethu Themba public school in Eikenhof, south of Joburg, escaped their abductors last week by jumping from a moving vehicle when they believed they were being kidnapped.
The three teen girls were allegedly abducted by four adults on Thursday morning as they walked to school.
A source at the school who can’t be named said the pupils often accepted lifts and the three girls had thought the white bakkie was offering them a ride as they walked from the Lehae informal settlement nearby.
When the car turned right towards Vereeniging, the three realised that the driver was not travelling towards their school. A truck forced the car to slow down and the girls jumped off the back of the bakkie, leaving their bags behind.
The source said they were unharmed but traumatised by the experience. The girls received counselling following the ordeal. Their bags were later found near Kliptown but the textbooks were missing.
Constable Sibongile Mnguni confirmed that SAPS Mondeor had opened a case of theft.
The girls’ statement said a cellphone and textbooks were stolen from the girls before they jumped off the bakkie.
Amazing Grace, a child shelter a few kilometres away, also experienced an abduction last year.
Grace Mashaba confirmed that in October, a 13-year-old girl was taken at the entrance to the premises.
Lizzy Ndimande, 23, a resident of neighbouring Jackson’s Drift informal settlement, said she’d heard rumours of a Quantum that had been known to pick up hitchhikers and take them to Lehae.
She had heard that bodies had been found after being disembowelled. “They take the heart out,” said Ndimande, but the police did not have information on this.
The Star