Gift of the Givers step up efforts to secure freedom for SA hostage
MALCOLM McGown thinks of going to the desert of Mali to rescue his son. He knows it’s crazy – after all, he is 70 – but as a parent, he would do anything to see his child again.
“If it would help, I would do it. Believe me, we’ve debated it – my going up there to make contact.
“People warn me, what if they just come and take me too? But it would hardly be worth taking someone my age for ransom. And it’s another thing to take a 70-year-old into the desert, you’d hardly survive.”
This week, McGown sr and his family had a rare glimpse of their son, Stephen Malcolm McGown, 39, when a YouTube video, believed to have been shot in April, surfaced online.
It showed him and Swede Johan Gustafsson, apparently in Mali, thanking their governments and his family for trying to rescue him and pleading for help. “I believe Mali and South Africa have a strong commercial and political relationship. I hope that a negotiation can be brokered and my release can be soon,” urged Stephen Malcolm.
It was more than 1 300 days ago – McGown sr has stopped counting – that al-Qaeda militants kidnapped Stephen Malcolm, Gustafsson, and a group of other tourists at a restaurant in Timbuktu in November 2011. Only Stephen Malcolm and Gustafsson remain in captivity.
“You never lose hope,” McGown sr says.
“I know he’s going to come home. I think the fact that they sent a longer communication in this video – 18 minutes – is a good sign that they are wanting to make contact. We’re certainly hoping that, but no ransom demands have been made.
“We are throwing as many lines in the water as we can… to make contact (with the captors) to see what we can do.”
The video shows the pair in a stretch of forest, dressed in robes, with thick, long beards – and in no obvious sign of poor health.
“He’s thinner, he’s aged a bit. Obviously, it’s a big stress sitting out there where he is. I don’t know how they keep themselves occupied.
“It’s just time he comes home, that’s all. His mother needs to see him, and his wife, Catherine, too. We all need to see him. Someone needs to get him released.”
McGown sr says his wife, Beverley, has emphysema. “She is not getting any better. This is just making her worse.”
Stephen Malcolm, a banker who holds dual British and South African citizenship, was on his “final adventure”, biking through Africa, when he was snatched.
McGown sr says South African authorities have advised him to keep a low profile because of the sensitive nature of the case.
“The higher-profile the case, the bigger the demands can be… I can talk for Johan and say they were just tourists, they are not political and shouldn’t be worth a high sum.”
This week, Gift of the Givers said it had agreed to help the McGowns in trying to secure their son’s release.
“The McGown family does not know who the real captors are, what the demands are, where Stephen McGown is being held, and whom to communicate with,” said Imtiaz Sooliman, the founder of Gift of the Givers.
“We… are putting systems into place to initiate that opening contact with the captors.”
The video had been a catalyst for Gift of the Givers to “make a more concerted attempt” to help the family.
Sooliman said his organisation was an “unknown entity” in Mali and had opted to work through Mauritania, where it had an office.
“In the past 12 hours, we have commenced some significant face-to-face meetings with spiritual and tribal leaders in West Africa and are busy with other initiatives, which we will make public soon.”
Nelson Kgwete, spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, said: “We are definitely involved, but we won’t release the details of our efforts because of the sensitivity of this matter. We are in touch with the family and have representatives working with other parties.”