Suspect killed during hijack drama

117 01/10/2014 Joseph Olwage was hijacked at gun point bt three unknown men at a filling station in Eikenhof on the R554, on men was shot by police, one arrested, and one escaped. Picture:Nokuthula Mbatha

117 01/10/2014 Joseph Olwage was hijacked at gun point bt three unknown men at a filling station in Eikenhof on the R554, on men was shot by police, one arrested, and one escaped. Picture:Nokuthula Mbatha

Published Oct 2, 2014

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Johannesburg - Fifteen minutes. That is all it took.

And when what resembled something like an action movie ended on Wednesday morning, the R554 and the Golden Highway, leading to the Nancefield Industrial Park, south of Joburg, was swamped with police officers.

An alleged hijacker had been killed during a shootout with the police, while a suspect was arrested in the mêlée.

Police were searching for a third man they said had given them the slip, driving away in a white Audi.

 

It all started at about 9am, when an armed group of three men hijacked an Isuzu bakkie at a filling station on the R554 near Eikenhof.

Joseph Olwage and his father, Hendricks Booysens, had arrived at the petrol station with an empty diesel container. Their bakkie’s diesel tank is broken, hence the plastic container.

The father-and-son team, who collect and sell metal, begin every day this way.

Olwage said he was speaking to a petrol attendant when two armed men emerged from the main road and headed towards them.

“The guys pulled out their guns and told me to get off the bakkie. There were about 10 attendants, but everyone was afraid to help,” said Olwage, adding that he immediately called out his father’s name.

Booysens was inside the station shop to buy cigarettes and an airtime voucher.

“As my father walked out of the shop, he started screaming. One of the suspects pointed a gun towards him while driving off,” said the man.

The second man had a toy gun.

The hijackers drove about 100m before the bakkie ran out of fuel.

As luck would have it, Olwage and Booysens saw a police car driving past the filling station and shouted for help. The police gave chase and a shootout ensued.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungile Dlamini said: “The suspects then ran inside a nearby school, where they hid themselves behind the school buses.”

They then hijacked a vehicle belonging to one of the teachers and drove it straight into a cul-de-sac.

The suspects abandoned the vehicle not far from the Moses Maren Mission Olifantsvlei school yard, jumped over the school’s palisade fencing and ran towards the Golden Highway.

The chase ended on a nearby road leading to Eldorado Park, where a suspect was shot dead during a second shootout.

Dlamini said a suspect would appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on two counts of hijacking and two of attempted murder.

An inquest docket had been opened at the Mondeor police station.

Gauteng Education Department spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane confirmed that teaching was disrupted at the school.

“District officials will be sent out to the school to conduct counselling and trauma debriefing,” she said.

For Booysens, the near-hijacking brought back memories of a similar incident in 2005.

“My wife and I were hijacked in a similar manner while driving in Lenasia. The bakkie was never recovered,” he said, adding that the incident had affected the family financially and emotionally.

“I had to go house to house, begging money for food. I could not collect any material at the time because I didn’t have any vehicle to drive around and look for metal,” said Booysens.

His wife Amanda praised the police for their work in apprehending the suspects.

“I give credit to the police officers. It was so quick that it lasted for about 15 minutes.

“It is unfortunate someone lost his life. I feel sorry for them because it’s a risk he took,” said Amanda.

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