Hijack horror

It was a 70km hell-ride that has left him traumatised, the "ferocious" faces of his hijackers forever etched in his mind.

He was hijacked by two men dressed as police officers, stuck in the boot of their car, before being dumped in the veld in Bapsfontein without a cellphone.

Kilometres away, on the other side of Gauteng, a getaway was taking place across the city - complete with a high-speed car chase, a shootout with police, a car crash and an arrest.

It all started early on Tuesday morning when a man from a Toyota dealership was tasked with driving a new white Toyota Fortuner from Kempton Park to Bapsfontein.

As he made his way on the R25, he was pulled over by two men dressed as police officers in a Nissan with a blue police light on the roof.

After a long police chase, hijackers jumped out the moving Toyota Fortuner leaving it to hit a cement fence, in Eikenhof.

Bennie Viljoen, a colleague of the hijacked man, related the driver's experience to The Star.

The "police officers" were questioning the driver, asking where he was going. As they were talking, another Nissan parked across the road and two men came towards them.

"One of the men dressed as a police officer pulled the key out of the Fortuner and told the driver he would be killed if he didn't keep quiet," Viljoen said.

The two from the car across the road then loaded the driver into the boot of their Nissan.

"They pulled down one of the back seats and one sat in the back holding down his hands," said Viljoen. "They drove about 70km and dumped him in the veld in Bapsfontein near a dam.

"They held him at gunpoint and told him that he would be killed if he didn't wait there for half an hour," said Viljoen.

"He is really traumatised, and what stood out in his mind was the look on their faces. He said they looked ferocious."

The driver waited a few minutes and then walked towards a tar road, where he flagged down a car. Viljoen was then informed of the hijacking.

Viljoen then contacted CarTrack to activate the vehicle's tracking device. It picked up the car as it was being driven towards Eikenhof, south of Joburg,

Jean Brand, from Capital Air, a company subcontracted to CarTrack, said they traced the car to the N12 near Etwatwa and immediately called the police. The Joburg anti-hijack task team set out to follow the Fortuner.

"We were tracing the car and giving police feed (information) the whole time," Brand said. "They must have been moving at one helluva speed. It moved so quickly we couldn't catch up."

The car travelled past Boksburg through the Gillooly's interchange. It turned left and then right, travelling along the N12 towards Kliprivier Road. A helicopter and at least two police vehicles caught up with the vehicle at Eikenhof.

When the hijacker saw the helicopter and police cars, he started firing, and the police returned fire.

The Fortuner had at least two bullet holes in its side, and a police car had a bullet hole in its windshield.

The bullet narrowly missed the officer driving the vehicle, who ducked as the shot was fired and then did a handbrake turn, before he tumbled out of the car and injured one of his arms.

"As soon as the police returned fire, the driver gave up. He opened the door and jumped out of the moving vehicle," said Brand.

The car then crashed into a wall.

The hijacker ran into a house nearby but was later apprehended.

"We arrested one suspect," said spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini.