World boxing champion Moruti Mthalane has been left traumatised after he was hijacked by three armed men in Johannesburg on Wednesday night.His trainer, Nick Durandt, said the incident took place at 6.45pm when the IBF flyweight titleholder was driving home from a petrol station.
The robbers, who had apparently followed him from the garage, pulled in front of him, slamming brakes and forcing him to stop. They pointed their firearms at him before smashing the driver’s side window and forcing him out of the car.
“It was like he was stalked and followed,” said Durandt, adding they also took Mthalane's cellphone.
“The police were very quick to respond. By the time I got to him a task team of the Jeppe police station was at his house.”
Durandt said that the fighter was traumatised and was recuperating at his home in Johannesburg.
“If you haven’t been affected by crime in South Africa you are just standing in line and waiting for your turn,” Durandt said.
Mthalane is the first South African boxer to have lifted the flyweight crown offered by the IBF, one of the four major world sanctioning bodies.
Other compatriots had previously failed in this task, including Baby Jake Matlala in 1991.
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