NELSPRUIT – “Your child is going to look like Abdul did if you don’t pay the ransom”. This is the chilling message a mother received on Friday night when her son and his friend were kidnapped.
Abdul Rashid (13) who they were referring to, was a recent victim of a kidnapping which went horrifically wrong in Mozambique. They tortured the boy and dumped his mutilated body after the family could not afford to pay his ransom last month.
The mother of the son spoke to Lowvelder. The families’ identities have been withheld for safety reasons as the suspects have not been apprehended as yet.
The two teenagers aged 18 and 19 years old were abducted on Friday night from a park in West Acres.
She said her husband is a duel Mozambican and South African citizen, and she and the children are South African.
“My husband has businesses in Mozambique and I think this is why they targeted us.”
“We were out having dinner in Johannesburg and my husband only had his Mozambican cellphone on him, he had left his cellphone that he uses in South Africa at the hotel.”
She said when they got back to the hotel around 21:00, they found that the kidnappers had left various voice mails.
“They then phoned again and demanded one million US dollars but changed it to rand in the same sentence. We drove down immediately to Nelspruit.”
“While we were in the car the kidnappers phoned again. They told me my son is going to land up like Abdul and he is going to look like Abdul.”
Her son also spoke to her for a few seconds.
At about the same time that the parents realised their son had been kidnapped, the son’s friend was released by the abductors. They dropped him off at Nelsville after they discovered he was not their son’s brother.
The friend walked to Ehmke Street to a friend’s house. He phoned the family who alerted Hi-Tech Security.
Hi-Tech Security’s operations manager Mr Nico Grobler said they, Bossies Community Justice, J&M Security and the police immediately responded to the call. The friends took the boy him to Belladonna Centre where they were met by the police and security roleplayers.
She said her son said he and his friend had gone to the park around 19:00, when two men came out of the bushes. They tried to fight them, but stopped when one pulled out a knife and threatened to kill them.
She said they then told them to open a bag and take out two smaller canvas bags and put them over their heads. They tied their feet and hands with what seemed like rope.
“ They dragged my son and his friend into a vehicle.”
“He said the road they drove on must have been a gravel road as it was very bumpy. The kidnappers asked them if they could speak Portuguese.”
Her son admitted he could speak a little Portuguese.
The mother said this was when they realised her son’s friend was not her other son, who they mentioned by name. “They then took the him away and my son says he was terrified that they had tortured and killed his friend.”
They then took him to an empty-sounding house that could have been in a complex as he could hear when the kidnappers spoke, there was an echo.
“They put him on a mattress but they kicked him and hit him in the face many times, his whole body is covered in bruises.”
According to the mother, her son said the kidnappers then moved him to another location where they forced him into a cupboard and stuffed a sock in his mouth. She said he could assess that there must have been four of five kidnappers now from their voices as the bag was still over his head.
She said he told her the abductors said, “If your parents call the police you are going to die.”
“The kidnappers then grabbed him out the cupboard and told him we had phoned the police and he thought, ‘that’s it, they going to kill me now’.”
The men then pushed him into the car and drove to near the Edge complex at The Rest and dropped him on the side of the road.
“He got up and was stumbling about on the road and they stopped their car again and pushed him into the bushes and then drove away again.”
She said he had no idea where he was and managed to tear off the bag and untie his bound legs and ran to try and get help. The one security guard at the Edge helped him and phoned the police and security companies who arrived shortly.
The mother said the family were now dealing with the trauma and trying to cope with the situation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4DJ6C2QoFc&feature=youtu.be
