MK Party MP David Skosana says gunmen tried to force him off the highway

Gunmen allegedly thrust firearms through the back windows of an unmarked white Volkswagen Polo and ordered uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party Member of Parliament (MP), David Skosana to pull off the N4 on Monday night, shortly after he had dismissed his security detail and decided to drive alone.

Skosana refused to stop, setting off a pursuit through a roadworks section of the freeway where traffic repeatedly narrowed into a single lane. He said a truck briefly held up the Polo before the road opened again and the armed men continued following him for some kilometres.

The alleged ordeal ended only when the Polo crossed the island separating the carriageways and sped back towards Pretoria, leaving Skosana to continue alone to the Bronkhorstspruit police station.

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Skosana told Sunday World he had spent the day on Monday doing MK Party work in Soshanguve before travelling through Hammanskraal and back to Pretoria shortly before 8 pm.

“I was in Soshanguve the whole day yesterday (Monday),” he said. “We were there dealing with councillors and some insurance company issues.”

He stopped briefly in Menlyn before heading back onto the N4 freeway toward Witbank.

“I parted with security in Pretoria when I was going to go to the N4,” Skosana said.

He told them they could leave because he believed he would be safe on the freeway.

“I said, ‘No, you can go. Mina, I’ll go this way. It’s on the freeway; I’m fine. You can go now.’”

Skosana said he was travelling east on the N4 at about 7:50 p.m. when the white Polo passed him.

He said the vehicle was unmarked and had no number plate.

According to Skosana, two men seated at the back then produced firearms through the windows and instructed him to pull over to the side of the road.

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The encounter then moved into a stretch of roadworks where the freeway repeatedly narrowed from two lanes to one.

“There are roadworks, so sometimes it comes into one lane, and then it opens again into two lanes,” he said.

Skosana said a truck ahead created a temporary distraction and forced the Polo to slow down while traffic was compressed into the single lane.

“Fortunately, there was a truck, so they had to slow down for the truck.”

He said the road later opened into two lanes again, but the Polo continued to follow him for some kilometres. Skosana said the men eventually drove across the island, separating the carriageways, and turned back in the Pretoria direction.

“Then they jumped the freeway again and went back to Pretoria,” he said.

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Only after the vehicle turned back did he continue towards the Bronkhorstspruit police station, which he said was the nearest station along his route.

“So then I drove, because I was not far from the police. Then I went to the police station.”

Skosana said he could not say where the Polo had started following him.

“I don’t know who was following me from where,” he said.

He also said his security detail had not noticed a suspicious vehicle before they separated.

“My security said no, there was no car following us.”

Skosana said police recorded his account in the occurrence book but did not open a case because he could not identify the occupants of the unmarked vehicle.

“Unfortunately, because I did not identify the culprit, because the car was unmarked, obviously they just take a statement,” he said.

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