An Overport mother has described how she bravely fought off three hijackers, kicking one in the knee, to save her 5-year-old daughter.
“I was prepared to die saving her. I knew my only hope was to fight back,” the 37-year-old stay-at-home mother of four told POST.
She and her daughter are having therapy after their ordeal in Sydenham last week.
Still shaken by the harrowing ordeal, she said that after fetching her daughter from crèche she had driven to a local park to wait for her older son, who is in Grade 2 at a nearby school.
“We were parked under a tree in my Ford Figo. My daughter was in the back seat and I was in the driver’s seat with my window slightly down when two men approached.
“One put his hand through the window and continuously punched me in the face, while the other man opened the passenger-side door and grabbed my daughter,” she said. “He held her down and refused to let her go. A third accomplice stood watch.”
They demanded that she get out of the vehicle, she said.
“One started screaming ‘get out… get out of the car b****.’ My daughter became hysterical and started screaming and shouting for my help. I tried to grab her but she was out of reach. My attacker continued to assault me but I was not going to get out of the car without my daughter.”
She said she pleaded with the men to hand over her daughter and take whatever else they wanted but they refused.
“My attacker became aggressive because I was not co-operating with them. He forcefully pushed my head on to the steering wheel, where I hit my chin. I was a bit disoriented and this allowed him to pull me out of the car,” she said.
“He was standing behind the door and when I started regaining consciousness, I kicked him in the knee and dived back into the car, pulling my daughter from the other hijacker.
“All I could think about was getting my baby out of the car. My life did not matter,” she said.
Teachers who witnessed the hijacking contacted Sydenham police but the hijackers had fled.
“This ordeal has left us shaken. My daughter is struggling to sleep at night and we are going for therapy so she can deal with the trauma,” she said.
The woman advised parents not to wait in their cars for their children after school but rather to walk around, because it was safer.
Domenic King of the Combined Community Watch said crime had spiked in the area since January.
“When patrolling, police need to conduct more stop-and-search procedures so individuals carrying weapons which can be used in robberies and hijackings can be apprehended,” he said.
In a bid to combat crime in the area King and his team have asked residents to pay R150 each to have unemployed people patrol the streets.
Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane said no arrests had been made and the vehicle had not been found.