Johannesburg – A crack team of police investigators working around the clock for more than a month have arrested two of the three men believed to be responsible for brutal attacks on Uber taxi passengers in Joburg.
On July 6, a 64-year-old woman was attacked allegedly by two men hiding in the boot of an Uber vehicle she had ordered in Fourways, north of Joburg. According to police investigators, the men assaulted her and took her to a secluded spot, where she was raped and robbed. About a month later, a couple were attacked in a similar manner after ordering an Uber ride home from the Movida nightclub in Sunninghill, Sandton. Two men hiding in the boot of the vehicle pushed the back seats out, stabbed the man and put his girlfriend in the boot. They were assaulted and robbed. The woman was also raped,” said SAPS spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini.
On Thursday evening, after more than a month of intensive investigation, a man believed to have been involved in both incidents as the driver of the vehicle was arrested in Mpumalanga. On Friday night, another suspect – a security guard – was arrested in Germiston.
According to Dlamini, the arrested driver had been an Uber employee at the time of the first incident, but by the time of the second rape and robbery he was no longer employed by the service and had stolen another Uber vehicle.
Dlamini credited the two arrests to members of the Gauteng Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit who he said had been working nonstop since the cases were reported.
He said that while a third suspect was still on the loose, the team had solid leads they were following to track him down.
The two arrested men were due to make their first appearance in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
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