Kidnapped boy returned for R6,000 ransom

A Johannesburg couple who received a Road Accident Fund payout three years ago paid a R6,000 ransom to get their kidnapped son back.

Phindile Mchunu, 37, told The Times that her six-year-old son was kidnapped and held for three days before being released after the ransom was paid. She and Celimpilo Ntombela, 42, spent hours each day negotiating their son's return, she said.

"Our daughter was involved in a car accident in 2012. We received a payout from the RAF three years ago. I think someone who knows us thinks that we have money."

Mchunu said two men asked her about her son at her home in Malvern last Thursday.

"I did not think much of it when I first saw the two men in our yard. They asked me where my son was and I told them he was at the creche."

But later she could not find him.

Ntombela said he was told by a local "prophet" that the child had been taken by two men.

"He said the child was gone and there was not much we could do. We turned to the police for help," he said.

Their son's abductors phoned them to ask for money and the police helped the couple negotiate. The couple deposited two amounts of R3,000 each into their bank accounts, which helped the police trace the abductors to Orange Farm, southern Johannesburg, where one man was arrested. He is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

The boy was reunited with his parents at the police station.

"He just cried and ran towards me. He said he was in a shack, and ate rice and soup every day," said Mchunu.