Nelson Mandela’s Grandson Arrested in a Hijacking Bust

Police outside the Houghton Estate house that once belonged to South Africa’s anti-apartheid activist and first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela. Image: IOL.

Five people, including a man believed to be a grandson to ANC struggle stalwart Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and a woman have been arrested in connection with a car hijacking in Gauteng.

It all started with a hijacking of a white Toyota Corolla in the late hours of Tuesday night. According to sources close to the case, the car was forcibly taken from an Uber driver along Louis Botha Avenue in the Norwood/Oaklands area. The suspects are alleged to have driven around with the Uber driver and only dropped him off around 6 am in the Benoni area. “It is with relief that we can confirm that the victim of the hijacking is safe and unharmed,” said Xolani Fihla, Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) spokesperson.

According to Fihla, their officers in the Tactical Response Unit received information about the whereabouts of the hijacked Toyota Corolla from a vehicle tracking company. The police then made their way to the identified house, whereupon they encountered the five suspects. The house in question, located in Houghton Estate, is considered a point of interest due to it being the former home and place of death of South Africa’s anti-apartheid activist and first black president Nelson Mandela, who died in November 2013. The suspects (Mandela’s alleged grandson, three males and a woman) have been arrested and are being charged with possession of a stolen car as well as an unlicensed firearm.

The woman suspect is believed to be renting the former president’s house, together with her mother and is well known to the other four suspects, who are in police custody. When reporters arrived at the former statesman’s house in the early hours of Wednesday, the area had been cordoned off in a typical movie style crime scene, with a heavy police presence in the air. Police crime experts could be seen busy processing the scene and the suspects were said to have been taken to Norwood Police Station for further investigation.

This incident comes in the wake of several other cases of e-hailing drivers being waylaid and either hijacked or robbed of their hard-earned income. We believe that it is high time that the powers that be do something, anything in order to protect the poor drivers or at least to ensure that those responsible are brought to book.