Johannesburg – The specialised kidnapping task team has made a breakthrough after arresting an alleged kingpin behind some of the kidnappings in Gauteng. This could indicate the team is closing in on the syndicate, says a South African Police Service (SAPS) colonel.
It has also been reported that businessman Zaheer Asmal, who was kidnapped last week Friday, has been rescued and three people in connection to his kidnapping have been arrested.
According to Colonel Athlenda Mathe of SAPS, the task force’s work is not complete as there are “several groupings involved in kidnappings where ransom demands are made,” and the team now understands each province has its own group operating within it.
Public impression that foreign nationals are behind the kidnappings has been negated.
“I can assure you that the majority of people that we are arresting are South Africans, but we also have Mozambique nationals, we also have Pakistani nationals. I can also confirm to you that we are working closely with the Mozambican police agency where they are also holding their own operations bilaterally while we are also running our operations in South Africa to ensure that we apprehend these syndicates.”
The provinces hit hardest by these crimes are Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu-Natal. information backed by stats provided to us by Lizette Lancaster, Manager of the South African Crime and Justice Information and Analysis Hub of the Institute for Security Studies.
From the provinces they have obtained stats on Lancaster says, “Around 30% of kidnappings for the period April 2020 to March 2021 were reported in Gauteng and 23% in KZN.”
Last Wednesday a task team, driven by intelligence, pounced onto the alleged kingpin and his associates at an address in Brackenhurst. Drugs, along with other evidence believed to have been bought using the ransom money, was seized.
“We found and seized three high-powered vehicles, six thousand tablets of mandrax, hard cash, a receipt of sales for a R1.9 million property in Bryanston. We also found several high-end luxury brand clothing, all of which we believe were acquired through money received from ransom and cash payments at this address. All four men were arrested. The next day the team continued with their tracking and tracing and the raids and so forth and on this day [Thursday] we arrested a man in Benoni. We also seized the high-powered vehicles that he was utilising.”
Mathe confirmed the suspects have appeared in court for other charges and “at a later stage the kidnapping and extortion charges are going to be added onto their charge list.” However, he would not confirm whether people close to the families were being bought off for information and whether bank employees are involved in providing information to these syndicates on wealthy customers.
“We are working together with everyone involved. Every institution. Everyone is an important stakeholder,” said Mathe.
Due to the nature of kidnappings and those who are involved, it is not right to “comment on active kidnappings,” said Mathe. She encouraged families to call the police immediately and let them handle the case because in “most of the cases that we have rescued the victim, no ransom was paid.”
Kidnapping has been on the rise in South Africa for quite some time with most kidnappings taking place during robberies and kidnappings for ransom taking place when a victim has been intercepted during their routine.
“Kidnappings for ransom take place mainly when the intended victim is en route to a place they visit routinely. Most other kidnappings take place during the commission of an armed robbery such as a hijacking or business, street or house robbery, and therefore take place from a vehicle or place of business, home or place frequently visited. It has been steadily increasing over the past two decades as robberies increased but it has seen more dramatic increases since 2017 as more kidnapping and armed robbery gangs started operating.”
Social media has become the norm. Many times, users post things online unaware of the audience it reaches, therefore they do not know who sees their information and what they are doing with it. Mathe advised that citizens should be more careful when using social media.
“I would like to advise the public to stop exposing yourself unnecessarily on social media. Your twitter, your Facebook, your Instagram. Stop showing people what you own, where you stay, checking into places when you’re in places because we don’t know who you are dealing with. We don’t know who is watching, who is giving what information to who. What I would advise is for people not to unnecessarily expose themselves. Because these dangerous characters, that’s where they’re looking at your life.”
