Durban mum hijacked outside home

On the night of 20 August 2014 Natarah's cousin, a 37-year-old wife and mother of two was hijacked, outside the gates of her home in Newlands West.

She arrived home at around 19h40 after a long day at work. She noticed a car parked in front of her driveway so she drove further down the road, made a U-turn and headed back.

She's a very vigilant person. She looked around and saw her neighbour standing outside so she felt it would be safe for her to get out of her SUV (Toyota Fortuner) outside her yard. S

he switched her vehicle off, walked to the boot, took her laptop bag out and closed the boot. At that very moment, a gold Toyota Carolla stopped outside her garage, three unmasked guys got out and ran toward her…

At that point, her husband ran up to the front gate to see what was going on. In that moment, you'd reach for almost anything to defend yourself. He grabbed a chair. When he got to the top of the stairs, he saw the three guys and his wife lying on the ground. The gunman told him in a soft voice to put the chair down and then asked his wife for the car keys...

The vehicle was later found in the Claremont area by chance. Security officials were in pursuit of another hijacked vehicle when they discovered her SUV parked outside a hostel.  

Natarah’s cousin has been treated for injuries to her arms and leg and been receiving counselling. It's been more than a month since the day of the hijacking and she says she's still gripped by fear…

It's really affected her boys aged 8 and 14. She says she keeps expecting something bad to happen again. All she wants now is to feel like that confident, independent woman she was a month ago...