Thugs target motorists, using spikes to rob and hijack them

Tumelo Kgasago, 27, bought a brand-new VW Polo in February but did not get a chance to enjoy the fruits of his hard work as he was stabbed to death a month later when his car was spiked while driving on the N4.

Kgasago, who was an operational officer at the Bronkhorstspruit mine since 2021, marked his biggest achievement when he bought the car in February, and on March 30, his car tyres were spiked.

He stopped to change the tyre and when he was about to get into his car, two men appeared from the dark and stabbed him to death.

His friends managed to escape.

Kgasago and his friends had gone to Pretoria that day and were attacked on their way back home to Ekangala via the N4 when they were ambushed.

Kgasago's sister Bridgette Masombuka, 38, said they were told that after changing the tyre, two armed men appeared and attacked them.

"Tumelo's friends ran in the opposite direction. Tumelo was then left alone with the attackers.

"His friends told us that they headed back to the scene when they heard Tumelo was screaming. When they arrived there, Tumelo had already been stabbed and his attackers had left," she said.

Masombuka said she was sleeping when she was woken up by the family, who told her they received a call informing them that Kgasago had been involved in an accident on the N4.

“We quickly rushed there, and when we got there, we found him covered. The police told us that when they arrived at the scene, he was still alive. However, upon the arrival of paramedics, he was declared dead,” she said.

Masobumka said they were calling for justice for Kgasago.

"These are known hotspots, and police should increase their visibility. We don't want what happened to Tumelo to happen to someone else’s child.”

While Kgasago was unlucky to meet his death after his car was spiked, Lucy Tleane, 46, was lucky to escape alive when she drove over spikes at around 8.30pm on the night of April 18.

Tleane was travelling along the Lethabile road towards Brits, North West, at night after running some errands.

"I could feel that there was something wrong with my tyre, so I stopped. I then saw a big hole on the tyre.

"After this, I immediately got into the car and drove a distance until I reached an informal settlement that has no electricity. It was dark at the informal settlement,”Tleane said.

"I think what helped me was that there were cars passing by as I drove. I drove for more than 20 minutes to that informal settlement. The cars just passed by, even though I waved and hooted at them. Even the police van just passed. When I got to the informal settlement, I called my husband,” she said.

Tleane said since the incident, she is now anxious about driving at all and no longer drives at night.

"I am scared to drive during the day because you start being suspicious of other cars. At night I don't think I will be able to drive again."

The CEO of the Motor Industry Staff Association, Martlé Keyter, said spiking incidents are reported almost every night to road safety groups in the areas they have identified as hotspots.