Two in court for ‘kidnapping, extortion and robbery’ of UDM's Kwankwa

07 March 2025 - 10:44 By Kim Swartz
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UDM MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa was abducted in June 2024. File photo.
UDM MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa was abducted in June 2024. File photo.
Image: Nqabayomzi Kwankwa via Twitter

Two suspects will appear in the Blue Downs magistrate's court on Friday charged with the kidnapping, extortion and robbery with aggravating circumstances of UDM deputy president Nqabayomzi Kwankwa in Khayelitsha.

Kwankwa was bound with rope and bundled into the boot of his car after stopping at a barber shop on his way to Cape Town International Airport to fly to Gauteng for the presidential inauguration in June 2024.  

“The state alleges the two accused kidnapped, extorted and robbed a member of parliament of the United Democratic Movement in Driftsands,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said on Friday.

TimesLIVE previously reported the party paid R10,000 ransom to secure his release. Kwankwa was dropped in Lingelethu West, Khayelitsha, where he made his way to a police station to report the incident. His vehicle was later recovered in the area.  

“The point where he was kidnapped was at the barber shop, where they put him in the boot. The extortion happened in Driftsands,” the party’s then secretary-general Yongama Zigebe told TimesLIVE last year.

The suspects were arrested when they appeared in the Khayelitsha magistrate’s court for another matter involving robbery and theft. 

TimesLIVE


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