Man evades kidnappers
Growing ‘trend’ of extortion a major concern
The extortion of foreign business owners continues to rise and remains a grave concern in the province. This follows a recent incident in which a Komani businessman escaped the clutches of three alleged kidnappers in the early hours of Saturday.
Video footage widely shared on social media show the three men entering the shop and shortly thereafter exit the premises, dragging the business owner with them.
Speaking to The Rep this week, the businessman, who gave an account of what transpired, said the three men had forced him to get inside a parked vehicle.
“They came inside the shop and said they are coming from ‘NNC’. They pointed a gun at me and I asked where they were taking me. One tried to shove me inside the car and people could see there was a commotion. I started making a noise and some people came to my rescue. The guys then ran away.”
He said the vehicle had no number plate. He rushed to the police to open a case. “God saved me, he is the one who save me from that situation.”
A business owner who did not want to be named said they were living in fear as a result of this new “trend”.
“If we do not give them money, they assault us. This was popular in other areas, outside of Komani. Now it is coming here and we are pleading with the police and the community structures to take action and try and solve this problem.
“It is unfortunate because this is happening everywhere around the country. We are not safe at all.”
Confirming the repeated incidents of kidnapping around the province, Hawks spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said it was a crime that was rife and had taken the province by storm, especially among foreign nationals.
Mgolodela said they were also faced with a challenge in that families immediately paid the demanded ransom out of panic, without involving police in the process.
“When this is the case that means it’s easy money and they target people they know would
be able to pay such amounts. We are appealing to the families not to panic. They need to involve us because we do have professional negotiators.”
Police spokesperson Captain Namhla Mdleleni said police were investigating a case of attempted kidnapping following the incident.
“There are cases of kidnapping opened from various stations and those are under investigation. No arrests have been made yet,” he said.
Komani Border Kei Chamber of Businesss administrator Adre Bartis said the incidents started last year and had escalated around the province. After talking to some of the local business owners, Bartis said they had indicated their lack of trust in law enforcement agencies and had felt they were not taken seriously, hence some resorted to not reporting the cases.
“They said people are not taking them seriously, they have an issue with their accents and are undermined often. These are people who have big businesses and employ hundreds of people in town.
“It is heart-breaking to see them leave. Some of the business people had to sell their homes and travel to Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries and the jobs were lost because of that.”
Although they had not seen it, Bartis said they had been told there was an apparent list of targeted businesspeople doing the rounds.
“When we dug a bit deeper, we found out that people started paying a protection fee which started with about R15,000 per business a month, to about R200,000 a month.
“So obviously this has become a money-making scheme for these guys and we feel that business people should be careful not to keep cash at their establishments.”
She said Red Guard security had played a crucial role in the matter, and a security cluster had been set up to address the matter.
“We label these business people as foreigners, but they are business people of Komani and they are paying their dues to Sars and they have created jobs like anybody else.
“SAPS need to take this seriously and the businesses need to put their foot down and stop paying these fees because it is making these guys hungry for money unnecessarily.