By Everson Luhanga
Six members of an alleged kidnapping syndicate have been arrested and an Ethiopian businessman was rescued during a SAPS operation on Thursday.
It is believed that the syndicate has been kidnapping and demanding ransom payments from business owners in Gauteng.
During the operation, police also seized five luxury vehicles.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the operation consisted of various units led by Crime Intelligence Officers and Organised Crime members who have been conducting surveillance of the syndicate.
“The officials have already linked them to more than 16 cases of kidnapping where ransom demands were being made in Gauteng,” she said.
In what the police called a takedown operation on Thursday morning, the team, led by the Special Task Force (STF) and hostage negotiators, conducted operations at various addresses in Gauteng, including Jeppe, Helderwyk, Brackenhurst, and Daveyton.
“A businessman who was kidnapped on 7 January was successfully rescued from one of the premises and reunited with his family.
“At these premises, police also seized five high-performance powered vehicles, including two BMWs, two Mercedes-Benz sedans and one Toyota Urban Cruiser.”
Mathe said 20 cell phones and 30 portable GPS tracking devices were also among the items that were seized by the team.
The country has been experiencing growing numbers of kidnapping cases, seemingly having become attractive to global kidnappers.
Ian Cameron from the civil rights organisation Action Society described the arrests as a step in the right direction. However, he said this is just a drop in the ocean, as the country has to do more to fight organised crime such as kidnappings, which are on the rise in the country’s big cities.
Brigadier Mathe said that national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola claimed police continue to infiltrate and apprehend those behind the spate of kidnappings in the country.
“Our message is clear: SAPS is coming for all criminals. Either they [must] make our lives easy by handing themselves in, or we [will] fetch them ourselves,” said General Masemola.
Pictured above: Two of the six kidnapping syndicate suspects the police arrested on Thursday in Gauteng.
Photo source: South African Police Service / Athlenda Mathe
