Bay biocinetic testifies about kidnapping

Armed assailants, hasty moves to three different warehouses, proof-of-life videos, a botched money drop, and dodgy negotiations over the price of her freedom.

These were some of the revelations that came to light as Gqeberha biokineticist Riana Pretorius, 27, testified for the first time about her harrowing eight-day kidnapping ordeal.

Pretorius broke down in tears as she described hearing her father’s voice on the phone as she ran to safety in a daze and bewilderment after a R1 million ransom was secured.

Xolisile Rawutini and Xolani Kafile have been charged with the kidnapping, which took place outside Pretorius’ workplace in Newton Park on March 16 last year.

Pretorius told State’s Attorney Benedict Wilson that she arrived at work shortly before 8 a.m. and went to park her car.

Upon her arrival she saw a white Toyota Corrolla leaving one of the parking spaces.

Pretorius paid no attention and went to the passenger side of her car to remove her belongings.

At the time, she had her cell phone in her hand because Pretorius was busy texting her mother to let her know that she had arrived safely at work.

Before she could press send, three armed men wearing hoods and balaclavas confronted her, according to her testimony.

Pretorius instinctively thought it was a robbery and threw her phone in the back of the car.

She said one of the men took her phone from her car, while two others forcibly dragged her into the Corolla.

The court heard how the kidnappers had changed vehicles at some point and how a bag was placed over Pretorius’ head.

On the way, she was told to unlock her phone and remember her mother and father’s phone numbers before the phone was allegedly thrown out the window.

Stash houses

She described the first place she was held as a “dark building.”

“There was a plastic floor with sand in it and when it rained it sounded like a tin roof.

“I thought I was in a cabin.”

It was here where Pretorius was asked to provide her father’s phone number and where a proof of life photo was taken for the first time.

Pretorius testified that at some point she was moved to another place and room, with brown floors and yellow walls and where the windows were covered with planks.

As the kidnappers prepared to move Pretorius for the third time, she was taken to a vehicle that she said still had a “sliding door” with the bag over her head.

“I could hear children around me playing and people talking, but no one did anything.”

The third location, according to Pretorius, felt like a large building with an uphill driveway and large tile floors.

In this place, “the entire bathroom was blue, including the tiles, the walls, the floor and the sink.

It was here where two of her captors told her her father had been contacted for money, where live video evidence was filmed and where frustrated attackers returned after a botched money drop.

The court heard how Pretorius had lost track
of the days, dates and time as new negotiations with her father were finalized.

One evening, after the men returned, she heard zipper pockets and the tapping of the keys on a calculator.

“I could tell from their tone that they were happy this time.

“One of them said there was $1 million worth of cargo.”

The release

On this evening, Pretorius was prepared for her release, with one of the kidnappers giving her a ‘hoodie’ to wear as it was cold.

She told State’s Attorney Benedict Wilson that she still had the bag over her head and that she was pushed into the seat.

“They asked me if I wanted to be dropped off at a police station or somewhere else.

“I remembered they said they had friends in the police, so I asked to be dropped off there,” Pretorius said.

Her captors gave her a cell phone and instructed her to run and not look back once the bag was removed from her head.

She was also told to throw away the phone she used once and the jacket (hoodie).

“When they took the bag off my head, I ran away.

Pretorius remembers running past a garbage dump and a hut with a red door.

“I ran and ran.

“After I finally managed to unlock the phone it opened to a number. I didn’t know whose number it was, but I just called it.

“While I was running, the song rang. I saw lights over a hill and that it was coming from a garage.

“Just when I thought the person on the other end wouldn’t answer, my father answered the phone, Pretorius testified as he fought to hold back tears.

Pretorius told her father that she did not know where she was.

She reached the garage and asked a woman to explain to her father where they were.

When the woman called back, she had ended the call.

The phone could no longer make calls, leaving Pretorius unsure whether the woman had told her father where to find her.

Garage shop security picked her up, locked the doors and asked her if they should call the police.

To this Pretorius replied: “No. My Dad is going to get my bowl.” (No. My dad’s going to get me)

A cup of coffee later stopped at the garage.

“It was a police officer and my father,” Pretorius told the court.

Pretorius will continue her cross-examination with Kafile lawyer Wayne Mac Gear on Tuesday.