A UCT student has told of how he chose not to flee from his kidnappers because he feared they would shoot his friend.
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A 23-year-old UCT marketing student has described being abducted in the Main Road, Rondebosch, but choosing not to flee from his kidnappers because he feared they would get angry and shoot his friend whom they were holding at gunpoint.
The student was still reeling after being abducted in the latest of a series of similar incidents targeting students from the university.
Police say this is the third incident of its kind involving UCT students in the past couple of weeks.
The traumatised youngster also related how the three kidnappers who forced him and his friend into their car last Thursday evening, and then mocked and taunted them as they rifled through their pockets and stole their belongings.
On Friday police put out an alert warning students to beware the gang, who travel in either a white Mercedes-Benz or a black sedan.
Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said the three incidents took place in the Claremont, Rondebosch and Mowbray areas.
“The modus in all three is the same. While students are walking during the day, they are approached by a vehicle with unknown occupants under the pretext of wanting directions. Once they strike up a conversation, they then request them to get into the vehicles, and physically [drive them away],” he said.
The student involved in the most recent incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a white car pulled up beside him and his friend at 8.15pm on Thursday on Main Road, Newlands. The male occupants were well-groomed and smiled pleasantly.
“They said they were from Johannesburg and were lost. As we leaned into the car window, they pulled out a gun and placed it to my friend’s temple. That’s when I realised it was really happening,” he said. He had become a victim of what students are calling “the UCT robberies”.
Van Wyk said the students had all been assaulted or roughed up by what was presumed to be the same gang. Some were forced to withdraw all their cash from ATMs before being dropped off at random locations.
The student told how they were forced into the car, and then driven to “a darkened highway”. “We didn’t know where we were going – or if we would live to ever know. They kept taunting us and mocking us as they took our possessions. I think they were trying to scare us.”
Their phones, laptops and wallets were stolen.
His friend was held at gunpoint while he was verbally abused.
“At that point… I could have jumped out the car. But I couldn’t leave my friend. They would have killed him,” the student said.
They were driven to an ATM at an Ottery supermarket and forced to withdraw all their cash.
“I remember telling them that I didn’t have any money on me – that I was only carrying my Bible. That’s when they punched me.”
He described the three men as well-dressed and young, one particularly slightly built. “He looked so small, he definitely couldn’t have been older than me,” he said, adding that they also appeared edgy and nervous. But the one they called ‘Fabba’ looked crazy. He kept waving the gun around and saying he would blow our heads off.”
After they drew money from the student’s friend’s account, the men drove them around for a while longer before dropping them off in Ottery and speeding away.
“It was over, just like that. But that’s when the fear really hit me, because at that point it was more dangerous to be outside that car than inside.”
It was dark, they had no money and no phones. They walked to a shopping centre in Kenilworth where they found a police car.
Lyon Campbell, a university spokeswoman, said Campus Protection Services and the Groote Schuur Community Improvement District were assisting the police in raising public awareness about the incidents.
sibusisiwe.lwandle@inl.co.za
Weekend Argus