Alleged Islamic State recruiter and funder Abdella Hussein Abadiga is believed to have been snatched from the Mall of Africa in December by SA National Defence Force (SANDF) special forces personnel. He is still missing.
Abadiga, an Ethiopian, was placed under US Treasury sanctions in March last year with Tanzanian Peter Charles Mbaga and South Africans Farhad Hoomer and Siraaj Miller. According to the US government, the men helped terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, to gather support and financing for its Africa campaigns.
A notice of motion for an urgent court application filed by his brother, Abdurahim, alleges Abadiga and his bodyguard Kadir Jemal Abotese were abducted from the parking lot at the shopping centre in Midrand, Johannesburg, on December 29.
Abdurahim, who had been out of the country, reported his brother missing to the Midrand police in January.
Police are investigating a case of kidnapping after CCTV footage was collected from Mall of Africa cameras allegedly showing several men driving vehicles with number plates registered to SANDF-linked company Peters Communications Trust leaving the parking lot at about the time of Abadiga's disappearance.
Gauteng police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo said: “Police can confirm that a case of kidnapping has been opened at Midrand police station. The victims are still missing, and the search and investigation are continuing.”
SANDF spokesperson Brig-Gen Andries Mahapa said the matter was reported to the SA Police Service for further investigation.
“Based on that, the SANDF cannot comment further for the purpose of non-interference with the SAPS investigation,” he said.
The CCTV footage, stills of which are contained in the application and which TimesLIVE Investigations has seen, allegedly show Abadiga’s car, a Toyota Lexus, being escorted out the parking lot by one of the vehicles belonging to Peters Communications at 4.55pm on December 29.
The application, which is set down to be heard in the Johannesburg high court on Thursday, claims Abadiga was last seen on CCTV footage at 12.11pm, while he was paying for his parking ticket.
His brother claimed this indicated that Abadiga and his bodyguard were intending to leave the mall in his vehicle shortly after that because the ticket is only valid for a short time.
“Yet my brother and Mr Abotese did not leave the mall in the Lexus and it is only seen leaving the parking area approximately four hours later together with the grey Audi [with a number plate showing it belonged to Peters Communications]”.
Abdurahim said it was in the seconds after Abadiga paid for his parking ticket and went to the parking lot that he was abducted and driven away by a Mercedes-Benz and a BMW, which belong to Peters Communications.
According to the application, a Midrand police investigator confirmed the vehicle registrations of the suspected vehicles belonged to Peters Communications Trust after he reviewed the CCTV footage of the alleged abduction.
TimesLIVE Investigations can independently confirm that the directors of Peters Communications Trust have listed the SANDF as their employer.
TimesLIVE Investigations has also spoken to one of its directors, who cannot be named because he does not have permission to speak to the media, and put the kidnapping allegations to him.
The director said it was an “an interesting case” and that TimesLIVE Investigations should refer enquiries to the SANDF media liaison office.
The notice of motion was forwarded to several journalists and other parties on Tuesday by the attorney representing Abdurahim, Yusuf Cassim.
Through the application Abdurahim seeks to compel the minister of defence and military veterans Thandi Modise, President Cyril Ramaphosa, police minister Bheki Cele, international relations and co-operation minister Naledi Pandor, the owners of Mall of Africa, Attacq, Peters Communications Trust, and Herbert Mashego, a Peters Communications Trust director, to account for his brother's whereabouts.
Speaking to TimesLIVE Investigations on Wednesday, Abdurahim said he was alerted just before midnight on December 29 by Abadiga’s friends that his brother was missing.
“I heard that he disappeared and after about 72 hours I came back to South Africa from Ethiopia,” he said.
'Leader in the Ethiopian community'
Abdurahim said at first he thought his brother had been kidnapped by members of an Ethiopian kidnapping syndicate whose activities he claimed Abadiga was actively opposed to.
He said Abadiga was a prominent member of the Ethiopian community but was not a wealthy man.
He said that on the day of his brother’s kidnapping, Abadiga was at the Mall of Africa mediating a dispute over money between an Ethiopian man and an Eritrean woman.
“He’s a leader in the Ethiopian community. Any problems they have, they bring to him, and he sits and he mediates,” Abdurahim said.
“After 12 o'clock, his friends said, his phone wasn’t being answered. They phoned me at 10 o'clock at night and told me that he went to some community meeting at Mall of Africa and he hasn’t been answering since midday.”
Abdurahim said that three weeks after his brother had gone missing, alleged members of an Ethiopian kidnapping syndicate were arrested.
After the arrests, several Ethiopian community members alleged that one of the suspects boasted to have arranged his brother’s kidnapping and to have killed him due to his vocal opposition against the Ethiopian cartel, Abdurahim said.
However, since he has seen the CCTV footage showing the Peters Communications vehicles escorting his brother's car out of the shopping centre, he is uncertain about the theory of linking his disappearance to a kidnapping cartel.
This is why he has turned to the courts to get clarity from the defence ministry on the apparent involvement of its members.
Asked whether their responding affidavit was available and could be shared with TimesLIVE Investigations, Mahapa said, “unfortunately not”.
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