A 34-year-old man is scheduled to appear before the Bela-Bela Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, 20 May 2026, facing charges of hijacking, kidnapping, and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
According to police reports, on Monday, 18 May 2026, a 64-year-old employee of the Limpopo Department of Public Works was operating a grader along the R33 public road outside Bela-Bela when two unknown male suspects approached him on foot.
The suspects pretended to seek assistance with cleaning a site. When the victim declined, one suspect produced a firearm and pointed it at him. The victim was then dragged into nearby bushes and had both his hands and feet tied.
One suspect left the scene while the other remained, guarding the elderly victim with the firearm. The victim subsequently heard the grader being driven away.
The suspect guarding the victim remained until the evening, when the victim heard a motor vehicle stop along the road. The remaining suspect then fled the scene in an unknown motor vehicle, leaving the victim still tied up.
The victim managed to obtain assistance from members of the Community Policing Forum (CPF), who had been searching for him in the vicinity.
The grader, valued at more than two million rands (R2,000,000), was later found being driven by the 34-year-old suspect, who was arrested in the Siyabuswa policing area.
Limpopo Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe, commended the joint initiative and swift response involving members of the SAPS Sekhukhune Tracking Team, Tracker Company, Rural Safety structures, a private security company, and the CPF.
Police investigations continue.
