- Abductions have become a regular feature of daily news headlines, and crime experts are now warning that SA is on the verge of becoming as lawless as a mafia state.
By Vincent Cruywagen and Nonkululeko Njilo
On the morning of 17 May, Bongani Khumalo, a tavern owner in Daveyton, Ekurhuleni, was busy with his regular tasks: serving customers and managing his accounts. Around noon, he stepped out to buy more meat and alcohol from a nearby supermarket.
Along the way, Khumalo stopped at a set of traffic lights and was suddenly boxed in by two vehicles. Two men approached his car and one of them pointed a firearm in his face.
He was told to remain calm as they moved him to the passenger seat and drove away with him in his car. “They blindfolded me and kept on driving. Throughout the drive, they kept on asking about where I kept my money with a gun pointed at my neck. They wanted R200,000. I told them that I do not have it, but they got more aggressive.
“We eventually arrived at a house, where they put me on the floor and tortured me for a day. They beat me until I was bleeding. As I was bleeding, they showed me a picture of my child.”
Throughout the more than 24-hour-long ordeal, Khumalo was tied up and denied any food. “It was bad. I was not even allowed to go outside and pee. I had to relieve myself while they watched me…
“Eventually, they stopped beating me and instructed me to call my wife. They spoke to her and demanded R200,000 within 24 hours. They said if she goes to the police, they would kill me,” he said.
Khumalo was forced to speak to his wife and plead with her not to approach the police in order to safeguard their child. A day later, his wife paid a ransom of R50,000, which led to his release.
“It is through the grace of God that I am still alive, but I still think about the incident each time I go to bed,” he said.
The kidnapping resulted in Khumalo permanently closing down his business and relocating to a different province. His case is still under investigation by officers at the Benoni Police Station.
Abdul*, the owner of a small business in Bellville, Cape Town, was snatched from his shop in March 2022 by a group of armed robbers who were furious that there was not enough money in the cash register.
They took him and fled in a getaway car. Abdul was handed over to another group, which he later learnt were kidnappers.
“When the kidnappers called my family to demand the ransom, they set the dogs on me. My family overheard me scream as the dogs bit me. I was bitten on the torso, legs and feet. I thought I was going to die.
“My family didn’t have enough money, so the Bangladeshi community raised it and paid the ransom.”
Abdul was released four days later after the kidnappers received R120,000. He was dropped somewhere in Khayelitsha, where residents helped him to contact his family.
He is still haunted by his ordeal. “I can’t shake the memory of the dogs barking, attacking and biting me. I’ve experienced numerous nightmares and sleepless nights. I’m too scared to seek professional help because my kidnappers are still roaming the streets,” he said.
These days, Abdul works from home, where he knows he is at least safe.
Bleak statistical picture
According to the latest crime statistics for April to June, released by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on 30 August, as many as 3,494 kidnappings occurred during this short period.
And, since 2023, says Statista, South verge has the highest kidnapping rate in Africa, with 9.57 kidnappings per 100,000 inhabitants. Globally, the country is ranked sixth for kidnapping for ransom.
High-net-worth people and their families, migrants who are shop owners, senior business executives and students are among the targets of kidnapping syndicates. More than 15,000 kidnappings were reported to the police in the 2022/23 period.
In the April to June 2024 crime statistics, Gauteng recorded the most cases (1,739), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (662), Mpumalanga (226) and the Western Cape (226).
The top six Gauteng police stations where kidnapping was reported were:
- Orange Farm in Sedibeng;
- Germiston in Ekurhuleni;
- Vosloorus in Ekurhuleni;
- Kempton Park in Ekurhuleni;
- Ivory Park in Ekurhuleni; and
- Eldorado Park in Johannesburg.
KwaZulu-Natal’s top four police stations were all in the eThekwini district:
- Inanda;
- Umlazi;
- Durban Central; and
- Verulam.
The only Western Cape hotspot in the top 30 is the township of Mfuleni near Khayelitsha in Cape Town.
A report released by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in 2023 indicated that the surge in kidnappings was related to the substantial growth in violent and organised crime in South Africa. It defines kidnapping as “the unlawful intentional deprivation of a person’s freedom of movement, or if the person is a child, the unlawful intentional deprivation of a parent’s control over the child”.
The police minister says the different kinds of kidnappings are those for ransom, (135 recorded from April to June), extortion (30 reported cases) and human trafficking (eight reported cases).
Police officers facing charges
Exacerbating the kidnapping scourge is the involvement of police. At least seven police officers have been arrested on charges of kidnapping, extortion, assault, corruption and aiding and abetting kidnappers.
The most recent arrests took place in Gauteng on 2 August when the Hawks arrested four Crime Intelligence officers and two civilians for alleged corruption, extortion, kidnapping and assault.
The Hawks claim that the victim was approached by police officers dressed in civilian clothes on 30 January. They drove with him and parked outside the Fairlands police station, informing him that they were investigating a fraud case against him. He was then taken to his home in Fourways and assaulted. His phone was taken and R180,000 was transferred from his bank account to theirs.
In another case, three police members stationed at Mahwelereng in Limpopo were charged on 19 June with kidnapping and defeating the administration of justice.
Objective of kidnapping
Willem Els, a security expert at the ISS, says the detection rate in South Africa for all crimes – from the time a perpetrator is arrested until the case is tried and the person convicted – is just 12.5%.
“If you are a gambler and the odds are only 12.5% against you, you may say, ‘Chances of me getting caught are unfortunate, but the rest of the time I will get away. I don’t have to work hard. I can be wealthy because the money I earn comes at the expense of others.’
“Kidnapping is a quick way to make money; kidnappers can afford to drive flashy cars. This is where greed comes into play.”
Els says kidnappings spread from Mozambique, where they were rife, to South Africa. “These Mozambicans [alleged kidnappers] are in South Africa, and your local organised crime syndicates saw an opportunity to make quick money. They copied them and caused a ripple effect.”
Els warns that South Africa is on the verge of becoming a mafia state.
“It took years for Italy to break free from the Mafia, and it is still not free. If we don’t do something drastic, we will end up like Haiti, where the international community had to intervene to restore law and order.”
Guy Lamb, a criminologist in the Department of Political Science at Stellenbosch University, says kidnappers target a diverse range of individuals.
“Most likely to be targeted are foreign nationals or people who are unlikely to report the kidnapping to the police, such as undocumented people.
“Kidnappings are a bit like extortion in that it wasn’t always a very prominent crime. It used to be mostly linked to other crimes such as hijackings. But now, more and more criminal groups are seeing it as a viable means of generating an income,” said Lamb.
Although kidnappings appear to take place largely in Gauteng – no doubt because of the high concentration of people and businesses – they are not confined to the province, says Lamb.
“There is ad hoc evidence of cases that are not reported to the police, in which large ransoms are demanded. These are sometimes reduced during negotiations.”
Police action and response
In July, the police revealed that their kidnapping unit had rescued 13 businesspeople since January. Eight of them were Portuguese business owners kidnapped in Gauteng, indicating that the kidnappers were targeting a specific group.
National police commissioner General Fannie Masemola said at the time: “From January to date, 13 businessmen and at least six students were rescued without ransom payment being made.
“This is as a result of the expertise and capabilities of our teams. In the past two years, more than 200 kidnappers have been arrested, all thanks to the commitment of our dedicated teams.”
But the kidnapping syndicates are not just a local scourge – and their tentacles cross borders. In January last year, a joint operation by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Interpol led to the arrest of suspected kidnapping kingpin Esmael Malude Ramos Nangy, a Mozambican businessman, in Centurion, Gauteng.
The team was acting on a warrant of arrest and an extradition request by the Mozambican government for kidnappings that had taken place in that country.
Masemola says the police are liaising with their counterparts in other countries in the southern African region because some of the kingpins are based there.
Meanwhile, to deal effectively with the spate of kidnappings and extortions in South Africa, the police minister announced measures taken by the SAPS to deal with these types of crimes on 3 September during a plenary sitting in Parliament in Cape Town.
“The whole government approach we initiated, signing cooperative agreements with provincial and local government with operational plans, all seek to integrate our resources against crime,” Mchunu said.
“Currently, the operational plan is being rolled out in Cape Town. The model will be replicated in metros in the country. The operational plan will include community police forums and private companies.”
The Eastern Cape as a whole and Nelson Mandela Bay metro, Mchunu said, had agreed on the operational plan and it was being rolled out.
“We are also holding a series of meetings with sister departments on collaboration against crime as per the National Integrated Crime Prevention Strategy,” he said.
Mchunu was unequivocal that corruption in the police, and police members allegedly being members of kidnapping syndicates, had to be rooted out.
“Let me be clear: corruption within our police force will not be tolerated. The actions of these individuals are a betrayal of the public’s trust and a violation of the very principles that the SAPS stand for –honour, integrity and service.
“The worst thing is that these are members of the Crime Intelligence unit. We condemn their criminal activity in the strongest terms it deserves. Such conduct is not only criminal, but deeply dishonourable,” he said.
*Pseudonyms have been used because the survivors fear being traced by the kidnappers.
This is not just a story to me – I was a victim
Journalist Nonkululeko Njilo shares the horrific kidnapping ordeal she experienced in this first-person account.
I became a victim of a kidnapping after a stressful day in July 2019 in Johannesburg. I had finished work later than usual and boarded a Rea Vaya bus, which was rerouted because of electricity protests. By the time I reached Soweto, there were no minibus taxis around, and my phone’s battery was dead.
Seeking safety, I went to a garage next to the bus station. A man in a white sedan, who claimed to be the driver of an e-hailing taxi, approached me and said the protests had affected public transport.
He claimed to have spent two hours helping people in the same predicament as I was, and offered to take me home for R80 instead of the usual R50. I accepted.
Barely five minutes into the drive, he made a sudden turn and drove towards Eldorado Park, notorious for crime and gangsterism. I pleaded with him to stop the car and let me out, but he continued driving. I tried to unlock the doors, but the child lock was engaged – and I realised I was trapped.
After 30 minutes of driving around in a totally unfamiliar area, he drove into an open field and stopped at what seemed like a bridge. He pulled out a firearm and demanded my belongings (phone, laptop, etc), which I handed over. He then assaulted me, jumped on my lap and tried to undress me. I responded by screaming, kicking and just fighting.
I pleaded with him to let me go and promised I would not go to the police. In the midst of this negotiation, a man came out of nowhere and knocked on the car window.
I thought a guardian angel had come to my rescue. But it was, in fact, my assailant’s colleague. They took me out of the car and tied my feet, hands and mouth, and left me in a ditch for several hours while they went off to empty my bank account.
Alone, I cried hysterically, even when tears were no longer falling from my eyes. I was so dehydrated I could barely swallow.
It was at this point that I thought of all the crime stories I had written, all the families I had interviewed about their loved ones who had been killed, and I thought of how my mother was about to suffer the same fate.
I think it was about 1am when the man who had abducted me returned and untied me with the intention of assaulting me further. He threatened to kill me and dump my body in the nearby river if I did not follow his instructions, such as undressing myself.
What seemed to be a shadow approaching in our direction prompted him to point the gun at me and then walk in the opposite direction – and I ran for my life.
Despite my persistent efforts to get updates on the matter at the Kliptown police station in Soweto since that night, the case remains unresolved, leaving me with enduring trauma five years later.
What to do to lower your chances of being kidnapped
- Avoid attracting attention.
- Lower your profile by leaving expensive jewellery or watches at home.
- Avoid a fixed schedule. Vary aspects of your daily routine if you can, such as your route to work and your means of transportation.
- Limit the disclosure of your movements, especially on social media.
- Remain alert. Recognise routine travel or work patterns and increase your level of awareness during these periods.
- If you think there is a threat, find other streets or highways you can use when driving from home to work and back.
- Programme emergency numbers into your cellphone and avoid being rushed, which can often lead to careless actions.
- Let your partner or colleague know your schedule, who you are meeting and where, as well as when you expect to return.
- Be proactive. Always think about your security. Lock your car doors and confirm the identity of the person or driver meeting you.
- When on foot, look out for people peeking around corners, through doors or windows; people staring fixedly at you; people turning away or leaving the area when observed; anyone suspicious using a cellphone when entering or exiting your house, workplace or meeting location.
Know what to expect as a victim
People who are taken hostage or hijacked tend to experience feelings of anxiety, shock, disbelief and confusion. This first reaction usually leads to resistance or retaliation, which could have fatal consequences.
Prepare to be alone and isolated from your family, friends or loved one, and to lose track of time and place.
What to do:
- Do everything the perpetrators tell you to do;
- You should eat the food provided by your captor(s) to maintain your physical strength;
- Try to remain orientated regarding your movements, directions, time and place;
- Allow yourself to be led by your captor(s); and
- Try to remain cool and calm.
What not to do:
- At any time become panic-stricken or hysterical, or offer any form of resistance;
- Become abusive and aggressive;
- Threaten or provoke the captor(s);
- Try to be a hero;
- Engage in an argument with the captor(s); and
- Try to escape, as this could place you at risk.
SAPS advice:
- Do not stop if you suspect that those stopping you are bogus police officers;
- Drive to the nearest police station, shopping complex or any other busy area when you are stopped by an unmarked vehicle fitted with blue lights;
- Do not stop at a deserted spot or area to talk on your phone or relieve yourself;
- If someone tries to force you off the road, don’t panic. Hoot to draw attention; and
- You have the right to ask a police officer who is not in uniform and in an unmarked vehicle to identify themselves by producing their SAPS appointment card, which would have their rank, date of service and picture on it. DM
Sources: SAPS, Vision Tactical and the Financial Intermediaries Association of South Africa.
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-09-07-africas-abduction-capital-harrowing-tales-of-kidnapping-syndicates-holding-sa-to-ransom/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_wrap