Narrow escape on taxi

A GRADE 12 pupil has been left traumatised after escaping a vicious assault by three men on a Toyota Quantum taxi by leaping from the taxi.

The 18-year-old was travelling from Dobsonville to Florida when she fell prey to the trio in the taxi last weekend. She has opened an assault case at the Florida police station.

In a Facebook post, the teenager said: “Please be careful, ladies. The Quantum rape case is still going on and unfortunately I was a victim. However, I managed to escape by jumping out of the Quantum while they were trying to fight me.”

The young woman said she had decided to post her experience on social media to warn other women.

“I was still in shock when I posted it,” she said.

Her father, a taxi driver, expressed shock over his daughter’s ordeal. “This is really horrible. It is hurting our children,” he said. He had encouraged her to open a case.

The young woman said she had boarded the taxi with a male passenger. Already in the taxi was another woman passenger, two men and the driver.

“Halfway to Florida, the driver asked the guy to jump onto another taxi. I didn’t think anything of it until the other lady and I questioned why he was changing passengers,” she said.

“The driver laughed it off, saying they won’t do anything to us… but he started taking another route,” she said.

The pupil was sitting next to the door when one of the men manhandled her and told her not open the door or he would shoot her. After a scuffle, she was hit on the head with a gun and suffered an injury to the back of her head and upper lip.

“When the guy grabbed me and hit me on the head, I decided to open the door and rolled out while the taxi was moving at full speed,” she said.

The Quantum taxi gang has allegedly been behind a series of rapes and robberies west of Joburg over the past few months.

The woman said she did not have time to memorise the registration number of the vehicle but said: “It was definitely a Dorljota taxi,” referring to the Dobsonville Roodepoort Leratong Johannesburg Taxi Association. “A part of me wants to let this thing go because I don’t believe they are going to find the guys,” she said.

Zeblon Simelane, a Dorljota spokesperson, said the woman needed to provide the vehicle’s registration. “We have not been notified of the case.”