By Buziwe Nocuze
A 21-year-old woman from Khayelitsha township in Cape Town jumped out of a moving taxi because she feared the driver was planning to kidnap and rape her and other students in the taxi.
She was on her way home from attending a computer literacy programme last Tuesday at about 4pm when the incident happened.
“There were about 13 students from Salt River. I handed my phone to one of the students sitting in the front to play music. We usually do it; taxi drivers don’t have a problem with that,” she said.
The taxi driver told them he had heard many stories about them and would show them who he was.
“We were all shocked at why he was saying all this. We don’t know him, and we have never done anything wrong to anyone,” she said.
While they were still enjoying the music playing in the taxi, the driver allegedly started taking videos on his phone.
“We all got worried when he started taking videos, and I saw him sending the video to another person. I got so nervous and asked myself why he was sending our videos to someone because it was the first time we had seen him.
“I panicked and started thinking about a lot of unpleasant things,” said the woman.
She told the driver to drop her off at her destination, but instead of slowing down, the driver drove very fast.
“I reminded him that I was getting off at the next stop, but he just looked at me and continued driving at high speed.
“It was then that I decided to jump out of the moving taxi because I feared what he would do with us, including the person he had sent our videos to,” she said.
The woman suffered injuries to her face, knees and hands when she jumped out of the moving taxi and was treated at a local hospital.
She has been afraid to go out since the incident.
“I don’t know if going to the police station will help me. For now, I am focusing on healing because I am badly hurt. Once I have healed, I will maybe also go to the taxi rank and report this so that the driver doesn’t do it to another person,” she said.
Andile Khanyisa, spokesperson for the Cape Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association, said the woman needs to visit their offices in Khayelitsha to report the matter.
Pictured above: The woman’s hand injuries sustained when she jumped out of a moving taxi.
Source: Supplied
