Pit prisoner recovering after three-week hostage ordeal

A Tanzanian man‚ shackled and alone in a dark underground pit‚ was saved by chance when a team of Hawks detectives on the trail of those behind a spate of Durban “bombings” pulled him from the hole.

He survived on little more than a banana a day in a dramatic hostage drama which spanned three weeks after he was abducted - bundled into a car by a gang of armed men from his Umbilo business premises‚ adjacent to his home.

It is understood that when the Hawks raided a Reservoir Hills home at the weekend‚ the emaciated and wounded man was found bound in what was described as a “dungeon”.

His name‚ which is known to TimesLIVE‚ has been withheld.

The man’s friend‚ Mohamed Ali‚ who had visited him in a Durban hospital‚ said that the men had been after money.

“He told me that he had gone home one night and as he was going inside his house when he was surrounded by a group of men who were all wearing balaclavas and gloves. They were pretending to be policemen and they caught him and put him in a car‚” he said.

“They put him in a pit like he was underground and they were beating him all the time. They tied his legs together and they were demanding that he give them money. They wanted his family in Tanzania to pay them‚” Ali added.

“All they would give him to eat was a banana every day and they just kept attacking him because they wanted to get a ransom for him‚” he said.

He added that the man remained under protective guard in hospital and that his legs were injured from his shackles.

Spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the victim had been discovered on Friday.

"[Hawks] members managed to rescue a victim‚ who was found chained and malnourished inside a dungeon in one of the houses‚” Mulaudzi said in a statement‚ adding that the victim was under police guard in hospital.

Beyond saving the man‚ the team of investigators arrested 19 people they believe are linked to the bloody knife-attack at the Imam Hussain Mosque in Verulam in May and the planting of a string of incendiary devices at retail outlets in the months that followed.

The group appeared in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday amid a considerable police presence.

Their appearance took place behind closed doors‚ with the public gallery closed and the matter heard in camera.

They said that the gang faced a collective 14 counts‚ including charges of murder‚ attempted murder as well as terror-related charges.