A group of schoolchildren watched in fear as armed hijackers surrounded a family and stole their Audi outside a Durban primary school on Wednesday morning.
The carjacking unfolded outside SRS Primary School in Overport while a man was dropping off his children. The incident was captured by a CCTV camera positioned near the school premises.
The footage shows a group of men arriving in a silver Renault Triber and stopping alongside the Audi. One of the suspects walked towards the driver’s window while another moved to the passenger side.
The second suspect opened the back door and pulled two children out of the vehicle as the robbers closed in around the family.
The driver was threatened with a firearm and ordered out of the Audi. One of the men then held him against a wall while the others appeared to try to start the vehicle.
The suspects and the vehicle owner could be seen moving back and forth near the driver’s window. It was unclear from the footage what was being said, although the suspects appeared to want the owner to help them start the car.
The attack happened as pupils and commuters moved through the area. A minibus taxi arrived beside the scene and dropped off schoolchildren who appeared unaware of what was taking place nearby. Other children stood close to the school entrance and watched as the driver was confronted.
Audi Tracked To KwaMashu
Zain Soosiwala, from Secure SA private security company, said the stolen Audi was later tracked to KwaMashu, north of Durban.
“The vehicle was found with the interior stripped and damaged,” he said.
The condition in which the vehicle was recovered suggested that the suspects had removed items from inside it after abandoning it. Details about what was taken from the Audi, apart from the vehicle and the driver’s cellphones, have not been disclosed.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Magwaza confirmed that a carjacking case had been opened at Mayville police station.
“The victim had parked his vehicle outside a school on West Road when suspects accosted him and robbed him of his vehicle and cellphones,” Magwaza said.
The police investigation will focus on identifying the suspects seen in the CCTV footage, tracing the silver Renault Triber and establishing the exact route taken by the stolen Audi after it was driven away from the school.
The children who were in the Audi were removed from the vehicle during the confrontation. No information was provided about whether they were physically injured. Their identities have not been released.
The incident has once again highlighted the risks faced by parents and pupils around school drop-off areas, where vehicles often stop for only a few minutes and large numbers of children gather close to roads and entrances.
Hijacking Operation Ends In Arrests
The Overport incident came as police in Orange Farm, Gauteng, carried out a separate intelligence-driven operation targeting an alleged hijacking syndicate.
The operation ended in a shootout and the arrest of 17 people on Tuesday morning. Police had acted on information about a planned truck hijacking along the N1.
The details of the charges and the identities of those arrested were not included in the information available about the operation. The arrests formed part of a wider police focus on groups suspected of planning vehicle and truck hijackings.
In the Western Cape, three employees of the Department of Social Development were targeted in hijackings or attempted hijackings in Khayelitsha within the space of a week.
One of the employees, a policy developer in the department’s Child Protection programme, was conducting a monitoring visit to a non-profit organisation when she was targeted in an attempted hijacking. She was shot at during the latest incident on Monday, according to the supplied information.
In Gauteng, police also arrested a 47-year-old man after a high-speed chase linked to the hijacking of an Omoda and the kidnapping of two people in Centurion. That incident happened on Saturday.
The separate cases have placed renewed attention on the methods used by hijacking suspects, including targeting motorists at homes, workplaces, roads and places where people stop briefly.
Police Say Carjackings Are Falling
The latest national crime statistics show that carjacking remains a serious crime despite a decline over the longer term.
Between January and March 2026, 3,609 carjacking cases were reported across South Africa. KwaZulu-Natal recorded 446 cases during that period, while Gauteng recorded 2,062.
Among the 30 police stations with the highest number of reported carjackings, Alexandra in Johannesburg recorded 63 cases. Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal ranked fifth, with 52 reported incidents.
The figures also showed a decrease compared with previous years. Between January and March 2022, 5,402 carjacking incidents were recorded across the country. During the same period in 2025, 4,533 cases were reported.
The reduction has not removed the danger faced by motorists and families. In Overport, the attack happened in broad daylight and near a primary school, with children present as the suspects allegedly used a firearm to take control of the Audi.
The recovery of the vehicle in KwaMashu is expected to form part of the ongoing investigation. Police will also need to establish whether the suspects who allegedly took the Audi were connected to the Renault Triber seen in the CCTV footage.
No arrests have been reported in connection with the Overport carjacking. Anyone who witnessed the incident, recognised the suspects or has information about the silver Renault Triber is urged to contact Mayville SAPS or Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
The investigation continues as police work to identify the people involved and determine whether the stolen vehicle can provide further clues about the attack.
