Pretoria - Protesting Soshanguve residents caught car thieves who infiltrated their demonstration to hijack Fankie Mnguni's car while the community was dodging rubber bullets after blocking the M20 road on Tuesday.
A protest was sparked by a taxi driver who hit a pedestrian on the notorious main road and fled the scene instead of stopping to call for help.
Demonstrations continued until Wednesday morning and while the crowd was walking with the Pretoria News team in Nkandla Informal Settlement to see where the victim lived, they came across the suspects.
They were shocked to see three young men pushing a bakkie that looked like it had been fiddled with. One of the leaders whispered to the crowd that he heard a similar car was taken from a motorist during their demonstration the previous night.
When confronted, the trio could not offer a solid explanation about where they found the car and where they were taking it. They quickly wiped their fingerprints off and fled deeper into the informal settlement. Community members then investigated and found that the trio had hid the car next to a shack that belonged to a mentally challenged man.
Community leader Ally Matlhabe said: "These boys left the car at this poor man's house to save themselves should there be a tracking device in it. This is not the first time we find a stolen car in the informal settlement but we will fight crime by all legal means. We are disappointed that criminals infiltrated a serious community protest to conduct their activity,"
Mnguni who opened a case at the Rosslyn police station said he was caught off guard when he was in the area to drop off his colleagues. He lost documents and tools to the value of R10 000 that were in the car
"I was ambushed by these guys who hit my car with rocks and then attacked me. They were very aggressive with me and I suspect they could have hurt me. They wanted the car so I had to push one of them to the ground and run for my life.
"I cannot believe we live in a society where criminals take advantage of a genuine protest to advance their intentions. I am happy I found the car courtesy of the community leaders."
Mnguni was taken to his car and upon inspection, he found that none of his removable items were there. The suspects also removed the car battery.
"I will take the car to the police to inspect it and then do the paperwork. I am sure they will still investigate and pursue the suspects for damages and all my missing tools."