Amy’Leigh’s mother opens up about kidnapping

Speaking at an interview with eNCA, Angeline said: “It is not going well, she is struggling. She has never been afraid of people, which she is now, she doesn’t trust easily; even us as parents struggle to gain her trust again.”

Amy’Leigh was snatched from her mother’s arms in front of of Laerskool Kollegepark and driven off in a white Toyota Fortuner, and taken her to a smallholding in Rosashof near Vanderbijlpark. She was reportedly made to stay put in a cooling room under a water tank.

After a failed ransom demand of R2m, she was dropped off in the centre of town and taken to a police station by two passers-by and reunited with her parents.

In the family’s first TV interview since the kidnapping, Angeline describes the past two months as “hell”.

“It’s sad,” Angeline told eNCA. “It’s disappointing that people who were so close to you and whom you trusted, especially with your children – she [Human] was my child’s teacher… it makes it difficult knowing that someone would do that to you…”

On the 11^th of November, Amy-Leigh de Jager’s four alleged kidnappers made a brief appearance in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court and the case was postponed until next year for further investigation.

Only one of her four alleged kidnappers, Laetitia Nel, was previously granted bail which has been extended.

The three others, Tharina Human, Pieter Jacobus van Zyl and Molemohi Bafokeng were denied bail and have been remanded in custody.

Human, who has since been fired from her teaching post at Laerskool Kollegapark, was a close friend of the De Jagers and was also their son’s teacher.

The accused will be back in court on 9 January next year.