Kidnapping cases up, children targeted

Kidnapping in South Africa has gone up by more than 100% in the past decade, with more and more children being targeted.

The search continues for the missing Moti brothers from Polokwane who were kidnapped on their way to school six days ago.

No ransom demand has been made public yet for Zidan, 6, Zayyad, 11, Alaan, 13, and Zia, 15, who were kidnapped from their driver’s vehicle by armed suspects last Thursday.

In 2018, a 13-month-old baby boy was kidnapped by his child minder and was found 72 hours later after five suspects were arrested for demanding a R6 million ransom.

In 2019, Amy-Leigh de Jager was snatched from her mother’s car in Vanderbijlpark outside her school.

De Jager’s kidnappers were also caught and convicted after demanding R2 million in ransom.

Lizette Lancaster, crime hub manager at the Institute for Security Studies, said kidnappings have gone up dramatically.

“The South African Police Service crime statistics for the period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020 highlighted a 133% increase in kidnapping cases reported to the police since 2010-2011, up from 2 839 that year to 6 632 in 2019-20,” said Lancaster.

“One-third of kidnappings occurred in Gauteng and 21.5% in KwaZulu-Natal.”

Lancaster said the single biggest cause of kidnapping – up to 46% – was due to armed robberies and hijackings, while children were most likely to be kidnapped by legal guardians during custody disputes.

She said looking at cases such as Sandra Moonsamy’s kidnapping, where she was held captive for a period to create more tension and desperation.

“Moonsamy’s case was shocking because she was kept for more than 160 days.

“What was also significant was she was kidnapped in Durban and held in Mpumalanga,” Lancaster added.

Criminologist Dr Pixie du Toit said she found it strange that there were no talks of ransom over the Moti brothers.

Du Toit said she suspects the kidnapping was never about setting a ransom.

“I have this feeling this kidnapping is about revenge. They grabbed the children and we haven’t heard anything about a ransom. It’s not about the money,” she said.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za