Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Teen taken from dad’s tuckshop
AS POLICE investigate yet another alleged business-related kidnapping, experts says most of the kidnappings that make news headlines are of wealthy business people or their family members – a global trend where terror groups use it to raise funds or to secure child soldiers.
In one of the latest cases in South Africa, a 17-year-old girl was kidnapped from her Somalian father’s tuckshop in Delft by armed gunmen earlier this week.
Weekend Argus made numerous attempts to speak with the father who has been avoiding phone calls, and has yet to release a photograph and the identity of his missing daughter.
It is believed the father had received a R600 000 demand for ransom and even received threats that his daughter would be killed.
The Hawks have been assigned to the case and indicated that it was at a sensitive stage.
The Somali Association in the Western Cape told the Weekend Argus they were unable to comment as they had received no information.
Since April 2022, more than 10 kidnapping incidents have taken place in the Western Cape alone, three involving children. At least five of the victims were found in Khayelitsha.
This week, Police Minister Bheki Cele revealed, in the quarterly crime statistics for 2022/2023, that kidnappings had doubled nationally with over 4 000 counts reported to police between July and September 2022.
According to the “Strategic Organised Crime Risk Assessment, South Africa”, September 2022, by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, kidnapping for extortion is a calculated crime that’s increased in the past six years.
“Kidnapping for ransom or extortion (KRE) has been on the rise in South Africa since 2016. Victims include vulnerable members of townships and informal settlements, migrants, as well as prominent business people and their families – with ransoms calibrated accordingly.
“Transnational crime syndicates
have been at the forefront of the wave of high-level KRE in South Africa.
“They are usually notable for the intensive profiling they undertake of their victim before the kidnapping, including ascertaining net worth and nationality and identifying family.”
The report said one of the most highly publicised cases was the October 2016 kidnapping of Naushad Deshmukh Khan in Cape Town who was held for two months. A ransom of R338 million was allegedly demanded; and it is unclear whether it was paid.
Crime hub manager, Justice and Violence Prevention, at the Institute for Security studies, Lizette Lancaster, said there were several reasons why people were chosen as victims, and in
South Africa particularly it was because they were involved in business.
“The kidnappings that most often make the news involve wealthy business people or their family members. However kidnapping for extortion or ransom contributes to less than 5% of the sample analysed by the police.
“The kidnapping of the four young Moti brothers in October 2021 placed this type of crime in the spotlight. The latest crime figures show kidnapping is increasing, which raises the question of who is most at risk. Interestingly the answer is not children.
“Kidnapping is a global concern linked to regional and international dynamics. In conflict zones in Africa, Asia and South America, terror groups use it to raise funds or secure child soldiers. Political and economic insecurity feeds the growth of local and transnational kidnapping-for-ransom gangs, who are known to target highvalue people, foreign visitors or workers from across the globe.
“Among 65 countries where official statistics are available, South Africa had the third-highest rate at 9.6 kidnappings per 100 000 people in 2017.
“Kidnapping for extortion or ransom contributes to less than 5% of the sample analysed by police. The SAPS crime statistics for 2010/11 to 2019/20 show a 133% increase in reported kidnappings (from 2 839 to 6 623).
“The increase in national and transnational syndicates in South Africa poses security threats, including the potential for more kidnappings.
“Organised crime groups may commit the crime because their members include highly skilled people willing to engage in violence. Syndicates also have firearms, vehicles and extensive networks for moving illicit goods.”
A source who works closely with kidnapping cases and Somalians, said the trend of business rivalry among foreign nationals was not new.
They said some of them operate like mobsters: “They believe they cannot open up shops near one another else there is rivalry and they open up false cases against one another.
“There is a lot of extortion amongst them.”