Family members from KwaZulu-Natal have gone into hiding after the ringleader of three arrested suspects, including a bank employee who allegedly kidnapped and extorted a payout from a man who had received a Road Accident Fund (RAF) payout, is still on the run.
Two weeks ago, a task team comprising the Hawks, special task force, crime intelligence, district trio task team, Inanda detectives and hostage negotiators made a breakthrough and arrested the trio, who had allegedly been terrorising the man for months.
Hawks KZN spokesperson Lt-Col Simphiwe Mhlongo said the trio had allegedly kidnapped the beneficiary's 21-year-old cousin, a matriculant in Ohlange, Inanda, on Wednesday, September 20.
He said the incident came after three attempts to extort money from the man earlier in the year.
Mhlongo said preliminary investigations revealed that in January and May this year, the suspects allegedly kidnapped and tried to extort money from the man.
“The suspects allegedly colluded with one of the suspects, the bank employee, and transferred funds from the victim’s bank account,” he said.
The suspects could not further extort funds from the man after his wife froze his account in May.
Mhlongo said the suspects then attempted to kidnap the wife and went to her family home in Inanda.
However, she wasn't there, and instead the men allegedly kidnapped her cousin. They demanded the wife submit an affidavit to unfreeze her husband’s account.
However, they were arrested, and the young woman was reunited with her family.
Speaking to TimesLIVE Premium, the matriculant’s grandmother said the incident has caused so much pain in the family and they were living in fear.
The 61-year-old said her granddaughter and her husband went into hiding after police revealed that the “main suspect” was still on the loose.
She said the matriculant was also struggling to focus in school as she was kidnapped for three days by suspects who were threatening to rape and kill her.
“It's hard. We are not safe at all. It's difficult to go outside the yard or go to the store or church. Knowing the main man is still out there just makes things worse for us. My granddaughter and her husband are in hiding, and I don't even know where. It's even harder for my other granddaughter. After all, she can't go into hiding because she has school and big exams coming up. Our doors and windows are always closed because we trust no-one,” said the woman, who was speaking through locked burglar guards while standing at the door inside her house.
She said the incident took place just after 8am when her granddaughter was preparing to go to school for her exam at 11am.
She said armed men, who had parked their bakkie opposite her house, forcefully entered and demanded her older granddaughter, who had left an hour earlier. She told them she didn't know where she was.
“They took out a cable tie, tied my hands together and dragged me into another bedroom. At the time, I could hear the matriculant screaming for help as they were taking her to the bakkie. They left and locked me inside the house. I used the house’s back door to exit and called for help. I was untied by neighbours, and we contacted family members and drove to the police.
“While at the police station, the suspects contacted my older daughter and demanded she submit an affidavit to unfreeze her husband’s account, and they'd release the matriculant. Her husband had a car accident a while back. He had a skull fracture and had some rods or screws in his leg. He was in hiding because of the same criminals who kept extorting money after he was paid,” she said.
She said the suspects called every day for the two days they had the teenager, demanding the wife submit the affidavit and that they should not alert the police.
She said whenever the suspects called, she could hear her granddaughter crying and the suspects kept swearing at her and calling her names.
“I’m diabetic, and I could feel my health deteriorating. I was forced to go to the clinic for medication due to stress. He called me on a Friday morning and kept making threats about what they would do to my granddaughter. He threatened to kill her if the affidavit wasn't submitted immediately. I begged him not to call me anymore,” she said.
The grandmother said the police had reported to the school about her granddaughter missing exams, and once freed she was able to write.
But with the kingpin on the loose, life remains hard for everyone.
She pleaded with the police to track and arrest the suspect soon, so they could get on with their lives.
In one of the incidents, a police source said the man who had received the payout was hijacked in January by armed men who forced him to transfer R50,000 to them.
A few months later, he was allegedly accosted by a hitman.
“The hitman said he was going to shoot him if he didn't give him R50,000. He did that. In May, the man was hijacked, and they drove with him somewhere in Umkomaas. In Umkomaas, they took him to the bank, where they were working with a bank employee.
“The suspects and the bank employee were in communication, and at the bank, the employee helped them transfer money from the victim's other accounts to the main savings account. The wife found out that her husband had been kidnapped and called the bank to freeze her husband’s account. After learning that the account had been frozen, the suspects let the man go,” said a source.
The man then opened a case of extortion and kidnapping.
Mhlongo had said more arrests were expected.
The three suspects are expected to apply for bail on Thursday in the Ntuzuma magistrate’s court.
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