'Gang boss' arrested in drag

An alleged criminal mastermind reportedly evaded the police for more than three months by disguising herself as a man.

Though Lindokuhle Portia Ndaba has now been apprehended, police are still searching for one of her alleged victims: Joseph Kock.

Kock, a truck driver from Northern Cape, was expected home on January 29 after making a delivery in Durban. But his truck was found abandoned along the N3 highway outside Ladysmith.

A month later his family received a phone call from a person who claimed that Kock was being held captive by "very dangerous people". A ransom was demanded for his safe return.

A relative paid an undisclosed sum into the bank account specified. The money was withdrawn but the family did not hear from the kidnappers again.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane said banks had put security measures in place when it was discovered that members of what is believed to be a kidnapping gang were supplying them with false information to support fraud.

Police would not elaborate on other kidnappings to which the gang might be linked.

Detectives believe Ndaba is the gang leader. She was arrested last week in the Bethany area, in Bergville.

"The police are now working on identifying and tracing accomplices. She will be interrogated about Kock's whereabouts," Zwane said.

Ndaba is expected to appear in the Ladysmith Magistrate's Court today. "She faces charges of theft by false pretences and extortion," Zwane said.

Several kidnappings were reported in KwaZulu-Natal last year, among them:

• Mohsin Patel, a businessman from Underberg, who was rescued from a Port Shepstone flat in which he had been chained to a bed. His family paid R100000 of the R1-million ransom demanded by his kidnappers. Seven men were arrested in connection with the kidnapping.
• Port Elizabeth businessman Altaf Hamad, originally from Bangladesh, was drugged, beaten and held hostage in a Durban warehouse for 21 days, the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court was told. His kidnappers extorted R600000 from his family. A dozen suspects are still at large.