Prepared to fight to the death for life
KAAPSEHOOP - A rape survivor who had promised herself that she would fight to the death should she be attacked again, fought off an attempted hijacker who tried to stab her with a knife shortly after she had offered him a lift on Sunday.
It was a brutal fight, as her attacker even hung onto the vehicle after she had deliberately caused an accident in an attempt to get rid of him.
Moments after Nattaniah Kuhn (46) had told the rain-drenched hitch-hiker that people had been placed on this earth to help one another, he pressed a knife against her throat, seemingly in an attempt to hijack her car.
Kuhn said she was on her way home from Johannesburg when, a few kilometres from Kaapsehoop, she found a man by the roadside who was hitch-hiking.
"It was raining extremely hard at the time. I felt sorry for the man and decided to pick him up," she said.
He introduced himself as Xolile. He said he was from Elandshoek and was on his way to visit his grandfather.
"I told him he could only go as far as Kaapsehoop with me.
"A few kilometres up the road, there was a dirt road turning off to the left. He said he wanted to get out here and I stopped. But when he did not get out right away, it made me suspicious.
"He opened the door and started climbing out, but suddenly he jumped back in again and pulled a long knife from his pocket. The next minute he pushed the knife against my throat."
She began to swear at him and shouted that he had to get out of her car. At that point, he was almost sitting on top of her. "I was a victim before (in 2019) when I had been attacked, assaulted and raped in my home in Johannesburg. That day, I vowed never to be a victim again. I will fight back to the death," said Kuhn.
She drove her Toyota Aygo across the pavement into a plantation where young trees were planted.
"I knew I had to get rid of him, even if it meant causing an accident in which I could die."
The car's door was still open, and the man kept on trying to stab her with the knife.
She slammed the car into reverse and drove backwards onto the road. At that time, there was still a fierce battle going on between them.
"His face was near mine and I rammed my right thumb into his left eye. I forced my thumb in between his nose and the eyeball."
The man then allegedly shouted at her that she was crazy and jumped out of the car. When she pulled away, he hung onto the open door and attempted to climb back inside.
"I dragged him along some way until he let go of the door and slammed down on the tarmac," she said.
A little further down the road she stopped and wrapped her bloodied thumb in a piece of plastic. "I knew the police could get the man's DNA out of it."
She drove to Mbombela and reported the matter to the police.
"They recovered blood samples from my thumb and also found very clear fingerprints in the car."
She was not injured in the incident.
The police confirmed the matter had been reported, but the dossier was being transferred to the Ngodwana Police Station for further investigation.