Immigrant community ‘live in fear for lives’

● Foreigners have been hardest hit by the wave of kidnappings taking place across South Africa, with international syndicates laying siege to immigrant communities.

The situation is so bad that the Pakistani Association of South Africa has created a position for a kidnapping negotiations chief coordinator, tasked with assisting the families of those kidnapped, helping to secure hostage releases and liaising with police.

And community leaders say the interaction between police and these syndicates is fuelling South Africa’s multibillion-rand kidnapping crime wave.

“We simply don’t trust the police,” said Western Cape community leader Hanif Loonat.

“Yes, there are people out there who make themselves vulnerable to these types of gangs by doing their business in certain illicit ways, but the police interaction with these gangs doesn’t help.”

Loonat, who assists Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis in the province, said officialdom did not take kidnappings seriously.

“Most kidnappings go unreported, sometimes because families fear that if they do [go to the police] their loved ones will be killed, other times because the victims are involved in potentially illegal activities like tax avoidance.

“But also driving that fear is the knowledge that corrupt officers are themselves involved in the kidnappings.”

The Pakistani Association of South Africa’s Ahmed Raza Butt, who is its former kidnapping negotiations chief co-ordinator, said a major problem was getting people to report the crime.

“People are scared and frustrated. Scared because they believe the kidnappers will kill their family members and frustrated because . . . police often don’t take the cases seriously.”

South African Chinese community leader Simon Shi, who helped establish the Chinese Community Policing Forum, said kidnapping was a serious threat to his community, with three Chinese nationals kidnapped annually in South Africa.

“These crimes are highly organised. These kidnappers know everything about their victims and their families, and prey on their fear to stop them from reporting the crimes.”

Former Chinese CPF chief executive Anderson Lee said many Chinese nationals were reluctant to report kidnappings because they feared police involvement, especially in follow-up attacks.