- CCTV footage shows a mystery man calmly dumping a tied-up woman at a Joburg petrol station after an alleged three-day kidnapping ordeal.
- She was discovered by police in her abandoned car parked at a garage in Turffontein, south of Joburg.
CCTV footage captured the moment a mystery man calmly dumped a woman at a Joburg petrol station after she claimed to have been kidnapped by armed criminals.
The video shows a red car pulling into the parking lot at a petrol station, and the driver getting out casually before walking away. About an hour later, police arrive to discover a woman apparently tied down in the back seat.
This is what CCTV footage seen by the Sowetan shows of the moment on Sunday when Mbalenhle Miranda Nkomo was found after she claimed to have been kidnapped on Friday last week.
Mbalenhle said she was kidnapped while on her way to an all-night church prayer in Newtown, Joburg. She was discovered by police in her abandoned car parked at a garage in Turffontein, south of Joburg.
She told her family that she was kidnapped by a group of unknown men who later claimed they had taken the “wrong person in the wrong car”. They drove with her to Ladysmith in KZN and back to Gauteng, where they dumped her at the garage.
Video footage from the garage shows the car parking at about 3:30pm on Sunday. The driver, believed to be her kidnapper, remains seated inside for about 10 minutes. He then steps out casually with his face visible and walks to the boot of the car. He takes out what looks like a jacket and returns to the driver’s side.
Moments later, he walks back to the boot again and finally walks off and disappears from view, leaving the vehicle behind with Mbalenhle inside.
About an hour later, a group of men believed to be police officers in plain clothing arrived in cars and headed straight to Mbalenhle’s car. They started looking through the windows and stood next to the car, talking among themselves while looking into the vehicle.
Their behaviour attracted the attention of petrol attendants, who also surrounded the car. Her family arrived later and took her home.
One of the garage employees told Sowetan that they saw the alleged kidnapper arrive but had no idea anything bad was happening.
“I remember the car pulling in, but nothing seemed out of place. It was only when the police showed up and went straight to that vehicle that we knew something was wrong,” the witness said.
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“When they opened the back door, that’s when we saw her. The lady was tied up, wrapped in a blanket, and looked completely lost and weak. We are still in shock; nothing like this has ever happened here.”
But key parts of Mbalenhle’s story don’t add up.
According to her husband, Sandile Nkomo, his wife had been stuck on the M2 on Friday, soon after she left home for church. She claimed there was an accident that had caused traffic to jam at about 6:30pm.
However, both the Johannesburg Metro Police Department and the Gauteng Traffic Department said they had no record of any accident on the M2 during that time.
Mbalenhle’s church on Monday said they could not find Mbalenhle from the CCTV footage from Friday’s service.
On Monday, Nkomo, who had opened a missing person case, released a statement claiming Mbalenhle was stopped and hijacked along the M2 by armed men who tied up her wrists from Friday until Sunday afternoon.
He said she was recovering at home from the trauma and that they were yet to open additional criminal cases with the police.
Police spokesperson Colonel Mavela Masondo confirmed that a missing person case had been closed. However, the police cannot move forward with a kidnapping investigation until Mbalenhle herself lays a charge.
“We urge the family or the victim to come forward and open a case so that investigations can continue,” Masondo said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
