A young Cape Town mother wants to warn women to be vigilant when walking alone after she was stabbed and almost kidnapped.
Mieshka Achmat, 25, from Parkwood, says two men in a white vehicle tried to snatch her while walking to work on Tuesday.
“I usually have transport to work but I took my child to the healthcare centre and was running late. I wanted to book an Uber, but it was R75. I don’t work that far and thought I would just walk,” she explained.
“As I was walking, I noticed this white car just standing there and as I passed, the car started.”
The mom of two children, aged three and nine months old, told IOL that the car started driving slowly behind her.
“I work with my mother and at the time I sent her a voice note telling her I am being followed,” she says.
“She was in a meeting. She did not get the message.”
To test if she was really being followed, she walked down another street, not realising it was a dead end.
She pretended to be looking for a house in the vicinity but had to turn around and pass the vehicle to leave.
“As I tried walking past the car, I saw two African men; the driver, whose face was covered, and a man in the back seat.
b“The man in the back seat then said ‘get in’. I tried walking away but he grabbed me by my hoodie and dragged me into the car. My body was in the car but my feet were still outside.
“I had perfume in my hand. I started fighting. I don’t even know why I didn’t spray the perfume. He tried putting a cloth over my face, but I kept fighting.
“He got angry because I started hitting him with the perfume and he started hitting me. The one side of my face is filled with scratches.
“He then stabbed me with a knife or blade or something… it all happened so quick.
“A man then came to pull him off me and I just ran without looking back.”
The bleeding woman ran into a crowd of people who work nearby and one of the men offered to take her to work.
“My mother got sick when she saw me,” she said.
Mieshka says the man who rescued her is a Parkwood resident who came to her house on Wednesday to check on her.
“I know him to be usually scratching in bins and things. It really is by the grace of God I am alive. Things could have been worse.
“I am telling my story to make other women aware of the dangers out there,” she added.
The mother did not file charges as she was advised that because she did not have a make, model or partial licence plate of the vehicle, it would not be taken.
However, Grassy Park Police Station Commander Colonel Dawood Laing has urged her to file charges and said residents cannot be turned away from filing a complaint.
“Regardless of where it happened, they must go to their closest police station.
“This will also allow us to deploy more resources in the area and increase patrols as well as be on the lookout for any vehicles, and most importantly, to inform the community,” he said.
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