Gunmen blocked a Pinetown dad at his own gate. His daughter was in the seat beside him

A Pinetown father shot back at armed men who blocked his car as he drove out of his yard on Lea Place on Friday, 9 October. Police say one suspect was fatally wounded.

Dashcam footage of the attack, filmed in the dark, spread fast this week. One copy passed 3.6 million views in a few hours on Thursday. A French copy added almost 2 million more.

Most of the posts say three hijackers died. Police have confirmed one.

What happened at the gate on Lea Place in Pinetown?

The father was driving out of his yard with his two young children, the Highway Mail reports. A white car pulled up and blocked his way.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Paul Magwaza said the men were armed. "The suspects opened fire, and the victim retaliated, fatally wounding one of the suspects," he said.

The rest of the gang fled in their car, according to police.

IOL describes the footage this way. One man ran towards the gate. A second got out of the white car and fired. The father shot back through his window with his hands off the steering wheel. His bakkie rolled forward into a tree and the windscreen cracked.

His daughter was in the passenger seat beside him, IOL reports. His son was at the gate.

Photo: landagent / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Did three hijackers really die in Pinetown?

Police have confirmed one death. That is the only number on the record so far.

The "three dead" claim came from social media. The account that first shared the clip online said three hijackers were "unalived". A dashcam seller that reshared it joked about "3 rotten apples sent back to the maker".

IOL ran "three dead" in its headline on Thursday. But the article itself said police had not confirmed it. An unnamed source told IOL that a third man turned up at a clinic. Police have not said anything about that.

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Pinetown police opened three cases, according to Magwaza. They are attempted murder, attempted carjacking and an inquest.

Can you shoot a hijacker in South Africa?

Yes, if the law on private defence backs you. Private defence is the old common-law rule that lets you use force to stop an unlawful attack. It is not written in one Act. Judges have built it up case by case.

South African court judgments set out the test in seven questions.

The hardest line is property. Shooting someone only to save a car is a grey area. Legal writers point out that the Constitutional Court has never ruled on whether killing to protect property alone can be lawful.

A gunman firing at a man with a child in his front seat is a threat to life. That is the classic case the rule was made for.

The gun matters too. The Firearms Control Act of 2000 says who may own a gun for self-defence. You need a competency certificate and a licence for that firearm.

What happens after you shoot someone in self-defence in South Africa?

There is no automatic arrest. But there is always an investigation, because a person has died.

Police open an inquest docket. An inquest is an inquiry into any death that is not natural. It does not mean anyone is charged.

The prosecutor's decision can take months. Until then, the person who fired waits.

Photo: Bob Adams from Amanzimtoti, South Africa / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

How many hijackings happen in KZN?

KwaZulu-Natal recorded 481 carjackings from April to June 2026. That is about 5 every day.

The province ranks third in the country, behind Gauteng and the Western Cape. The latest SAPS figures cover those three months and were released on 28 August.

2,207.00Gauteng

548.00W Cape

481.00KZN

195.00E Cape

192.00Mpumalanga

Gauteng	2,207.00
W Cape	548.00
KZN	481.00
E Cape	195.00
Mpumalanga	192.00

Source: SAPS quarterly crime statistics, Q1 2026/27, released 28 August 2026

Across South Africa there were 3,811 carjackings in those three months. That works out to about one every 34 minutes.

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The national number is falling. It dropped by about 18% from the same three months in 2025, when 4,657 cars were taken. KZN went the other way between the last two releases, from 446 cases in January to March to 481 in April to June.

What are people saying about the Pinetown hijacking video?

Reaction split two ways. Most people backed the father and called him a hero for protecting his children.

A smaller group picked apart his shooting. Some said he made mistakes but got the job done. Others guessed at how many shots he fired. No official count has been released.

Andreas Mathios of Marshall Security spoke for many. "He protected his family, and he did everything by the book," he told IOL.

The French copy drew a different debate. Viewers in France compared South Africa's self-defence rules with their own.

Other attacks this year have raised the same fear. In Eshowe, three managers were shot dead during a disciplinary hearing. Rural families tell similar stories, like the farm attack Leon Lotz heard over the phone.

How do you avoid being hijacked in your driveway?

One insurer estimates that 71% of hijackings happen in home driveways. SAPS does not count driveways as a separate place, so treat that number as a rough guide.

Security firms and insurers give much the same advice.

• Check your mirrors for a car following you in the last few kilometres home.
• If a car stays behind you, drive past your gate and go round the block. If it is still there, drive to the nearest police station.
• Look up and down the street before you open the gate.
• Wait in the road, not in the driveway, until the gate is open. Stopping across the driveway can box you in.
• Keep the driveway well lit, with no bushes where someone can hide.
• Agree on a family code word, and teach children what to do if something happens.

Most experts say the safest thing in a hijacking is not to fight back. Hands visible, do what they say, let the car go. The Pinetown father had no such choice once the shooting started.

Who pulled his daughter out of the bakkie?

The bakkie had rolled into a tree. The windscreen was cracked. The father had fired through his window with no hands on the wheel.

Mathios said there was "some sort of delay" before the man fired back. He spent it making sure his family was safe first.

Then his son, who had been standing at the gate, ran to the car. He helped get his sister out.