Mother speaks of border kidnap horror

19 June 2013 - 02:25 By GRAEME HOSKEN
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According to the Blow the Whistle campaign, about 70 000 women are raped in South Africa each month.
According to the Blow the Whistle campaign, about 70 000 women are raped in South Africa each month.
Image: File photo.

Held for days in a tiny room in a house south of Johannesburg, a Zimbabwean mother and her two-month-old infant watched helplessly as men and women were relentlessly beaten.

Denied food and water, the woman - who asked to be called Jane - prayed for help.

She was kidnapped at the Beit Bridge border crossing with Zimbabwe in April along with 26 others and was to be held until her family payed a ransom of R1000.

The alleged kidnappers are to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court next week.

The kidnapping gang, whose 11 alleged members were all arrested, is being investigated for abducting 29 Zimbabweans and Mozambicans, including several young children, this month.

The 29 were freed by detectives last week during a raid on an Orange Farm home.

Jane, describing the kidnappers as "smooth talkers", said she was snatched just after she crossed the border.

"I went through the border legitimately. As I crossed I saw people standing next to a taxi and asked them where I could find the taxi rank to go to Johannesburg."

The people she spoke to were allegedly members of a human trafficking syndicate.

Jane said she and her child arrived in Johannesburg late at night and she became worried when the driver did not stop in the city. They were taken to a house in Orange Farm.

"There were so many people there with small children . they were crammed into three rooms.

"When we asked what was happening we were told we would never see our families again unless we paid them."

The alleged kidnappers searched the victims and took money and cellphones, sjambokking those who resisted.

Jane said mothers were told that their children would be beaten if they did not hand over money.

She was forced to phone a relative and beg for the ransom to be paid.

"One of the men threatened to kill my baby if my family did not pay," she said.

She was released two days later and fled to a police station to seek help.

"It just got worse," she said. "The police didn't want to help me. They said I was lying . that I did not want to pay for my transport."

Police said Jane's statement would be taken and form part of the investigation.

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