Three police stations ignore pleas for help from hijacked couple

 

Three police stations refuse help to elderly hijacked couple

20090624 - “Not our jurisdiction’, three police charge officers tell traumatised, hijacked Potgieter couple of Heatherdale, Pretoria

June 23 2009. This is Mrs Stienie Potgieter, photographed by Beeld press photographer Leon Botha while reliving the horror she and her husband Dries (Nollie) had to endure while they were hijacked from their Heatherdale, Pretoria smallholding on Saturday at 6.15pm and driven around for hours through Mamelodi township – and had their ordeal made even worse when their pleas for help to chase down the criminals fell on deaf ears at three police stations – Akasia, Silverton and Boschkop.

Journalist Hilda Fourie writes that the couple were kidnapped from in front of their Heatherdale hom while Mrs Potgieter had climbed from their car to open the gate to the property. Three armed men in a delivery van drove up behind them, dragged them from their Mercedes-Benz Kompressor car, and put Mr Potgieter up against a telephone pole. A passing vehicle apparently scared the attackers, who then put the Afrikaans couple inside their delivery van. One of the men drove their Merceds-Benz for a long time but eventually disappeared. The couple were driven around for some three hours, mostly in Mamelodi, before they were thrown out outside the Sammy Marks museum. She was terrified: “When I saw the trees and the bush, I feared that they would rape and kill us,’ she said. “It was so dark. After they threw us out, I took my husband’s hand and told him we should just close our eyes and start walking as we heard them drive off.’ They found help at the home of a family nearby. “Those people phoned both the Silverton and Boschkop police stations, but nobody showed up. Both charge officers responded that ‘it was outside their area of jurisdiction,’ she said. Eventually they ended up at Acacia police station, who phoned their daughter Yonelda to come and fetch them. Meanwhile their son Andries had also reported them missing in the meantime at Acacia police station –but nobody was sent from this police station to the Potgieter home to investigate, Beeld reported. The newspaper has established that the Silverton-police station, which refused to accept the charge, lies within the jurisdiction area for the Potgieter home. Now, all three police stations are investigating the case. The hijackers have yet to be found.

Akasia-police station commander Supt. Sam Seleke said he can’t explain why a patrol wasn’t sent to the Potgieter home when the son reported them missing. “Apparently they couldn’t find the address. We’ll investigate,’ he said.  Silverton-police commander sr. supt. Charles Matji said it’s ‘the first time he’s heard of it’. He’ll investigate. The Boschkop station spokeswoman, sergeant Marinda Stoltz, said a police-student was answering the telephones on Saturday-night and ‘didn’t convey the message correctly. Even if it’s not in our jurisdiction, our people would go out and wait at the scene until the correct police station’s people show up. If our investigation shows that the student didn’t do her job property, there will be a departmental charge. The case is under investigation,’ Stoltz said. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2532442,00.html