Goya survives carjacking in South Africa
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday May 1, 2023 06:00
Goya said it all happened at lightning speed when three men forced their way into his Toyota Fortuner GD6 just before his vehicle doors automatically closed.
He had just filled up his motor tank at a filling station on a busy Johannesburg highway when all hell broke loose while about to join the main road, he told Mmegi.
It was on Easter Monday when Goya said he had just returned from a church service he had attended in South Africa, heading home to his family.
He said he attempted to speed up the car, but the man sitting next to him abruptly switched off the engine. The car skidded into a trench by the roadside.
It all happened with supersonic speed, Goya narrated, as he had only seen carjackings in movies.
He told Mmegi his incident was no different from the Hollywood films he had watched. The only difference, he appreciated is that he was able to come out alive on the other end.
Adrenaline reached its highest peak, as Goya said he knew he had nothing in the car to defend himself with, not even a knobkerrie or spanners. He recalled he had always heard stories of how motor vehicles are easily stolen when people least expected it.
He was forced to play mind games with the carjackers as he threatened that God was going to punish them as he had just returned from a church service. Much to his relief on that day, God was his only weapon and did not disappoint him.
It was on the highway from Midrand going through Hartebeestpoort, which also joins the highway from Pretoria to Rustenburg. “This is a busy highway,” he said.
Goya was immediately instructed out of the car but he refused, telling the three men to their faces, “Out of whose car?”
He was immediately bundled to the rear seat where two men sandwiched him and another watched the proceedings from the front and they started punching and kicking him to give up the fight, Goya said.
A scuffle ensued in the car as Goya, now held captive, said he fought the three men not to bundle him out of his car. He was suffocated to force him to surrender to his assailants, who Goya said had “unfortunately met their match”.
“I fought gallantly to loosen from the grip of two English-speaking men at the rear whose orders were that I should drop off. I suddenly got a chance and head-butted one of the men and when he reclined to the rear side opening his legs, I taught him a lesson he will never forget.
I grabbed him by the testicles and held onto them tightly and I twisted them so hard until he cried like a baby,” described Goya.
The other two men punched Goya on his back, shoulders, and head so that he loosened his grip on their friend, but he was nowhere near relenting, he recalled.
“He fought so hard for his freedom, but I didn’t give him a chance. I pressed the ‘family jewels’ so hard that he got helpless and pleaded with his colleagues to leave me alone as he feared I was going to kill him,” remembered Goya as he enjoyed his breakfast on Monday this week.
Goya knew that his freedom has finally come when his victim cried loudly: “Let’s run away, this man is going to kill us.” As the three men crossed the highway to the other side, they got into a getaway car that was parked a stone’s throw away from the scene of the incident and sped away defeated, literally taught a lesson.
He said the incident occurred in the full glare of motorists and pedestrians. As Goya fought with the three men off with no help in sight. No one would intervene at the scene to rescue him as he was left to defeat his assailants solo. He relayed that after 45 minutes of the scuffle and the assailants deserting their sordid plan, he was lucky that an elderly motorist came to his rescue as he helped pull the car out of a ditch where it was almost trapped.
As the whole scene cleared off, he realised that his mobile phone, wallet carrying his credit and debit cards, identity card, and driver’s licence were taken by the assailants. Fortunately, his passport, car keys, and the automatic teller machine card were in his pockets and safe.
At the time of the interview, he was still nursing injuries to his neck and shoulders as a result of the constant beating and kicking by the three men.
“I suspect I was also injured by the seatbelt as I was pushed back and forth by my assailants in their endeavour to dispossess me of my vehicle.
For me, it was not an act of heroism or anything; an opportunity had just presented itself so that I defend my property. I couldn’t just let the three men have my vehicle on a silver platter just like that,” he said.
Goya would later report the aborted carjacking to Block 6 police post where he also deposed to an affidavit listing items that were also stolen from him. He had also reported the matter in Zeerust.
He warned his compatriots to take his incident as a cautionary tale to always be on the lookout once in neighbouring South Africa, as it seems vehicles with foreign number plates are easy targets.
In 2019, information sourced from the South African Police Service shows that the country reported 17,777 carjackings; averaging around 49 vehicles hijacked every day. By the end of 2022, this number had escalated to 23,025 carjackings, a 30% increase, averaging 63 vehicles stolen a day.