After years of being bombarded with crime statistics and living in fear of any number of violent crimes, people have clearly had enough.

A trend has been developing throughout the country of late, that sees South Africans refusing to hand over their lives or their belongings, even when confronted with a loaded weapon.

A driver in Jozi chose to wreck his car rather than hand it over to hijackers, and CCTV captured another video of an undertaker opening fire on hijackers who attempted to take his car.

This hijacker had to run for his life after his victim started fighting back. A woman in Durban was so angry that she beat up hijackers with their own crowbar. 

The most recent incident involves Anton Damhuis, who saw a smash-and-grab happening and intervened on his motorcycle.

He took the hands-on approach:

“I would do it again if I was put in the situation,” he told News24.

The 48-year-old was making his way home from work, when his usual commute through Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, was interrupted.

From the corner of his eye he saw a man in a reflective vest on foot weaving through the traffic.

“At first I thought the man [in the reflective vest] was trying to get a lift with a car in front of me.”

But when a tug-of-war ensued between the man in the reflective vest and the driver of the vehicle in front of him, Damhuis realised something was amiss.

The man was trying to steal a laptop that was on the passenger seat.

“I decided to intervene by pinning the man [in the reflective vest] down with my motorbike.”

Sounds like something out of an action movie – complete with a high-speed chase. When the criminal tried to escape, Damhuis chased him down until the would-be-thief gave up and dropped the laptop. Damhuis got away unscathed, but his motorcycle sustained a bit of damage.

Anton is being called a hero, although he says he doesn’t think he deserves the title. Another person who is rejecting the hero title for fighting back is that 42-year-old woman from Alberton who rammed her vehicle into a gang of hijackers in her driveway.

News24 caught up with her to hear about the experience:

The woman says she pressed the panic button and was waiting for help to arrive, while doing her best to keep her 16-year-old daughter calm.

“I kept talking to her and I even turned the radio up, so she wouldn’t hear the hammering of the gun against the window or their shouting.

“Those seconds felt like an eternity.” She wasn’t planning on ramming into the men, but when her teenage daughter became increasingly rattled, she acted.

“Before I realised it, the car was in reverse,” she told News24. The woman proceeded to ram the hijackers’ Nissan Livina with her Jeep Cherokee.

“I thought if I could only ram them past the gate, we could close it behind us.” Adrenaline kicked in and she drove into them repeatedly.

“I remember seeing them running down the street.”

Both she and her daughter sustained minor injuries. Five suspects have been arrested and detained.

You can hear her narrate the incident as it unfolds:

South Africans are clearly angry. In some cases, it’s even starting to look like hijacking is more dangerous for the hijackers than the victims.

[sources:news24]