UDM deputy president Nqabayomzi Kwankwa has become the latest victim of hijacking and kidnapping for ransom, a crime which has been on the rise in South Africa in the past few years.
Kwankwa was on his way to the Cape Town International Airport en route to President Cyril Ramaphosa's inauguration in Pretoria on Wednesday.
The party said he was okay, though shaken and understandably so. Many a time incidents like this do not have a happy ending.
Kwankwa's story is one that ended positively though. His car, which the kidnappers had made off with, was found abandoned. While his release, following a R10,000 ransom payment, brings relief, it also raises critical questions about how best to handle such situations.
The question of whether families should pay the ransom demand and not involve police or that police should handle these cases is a tricky one for those affected.
In November 2022, Western Cape police commissioner Lt-Gen Thembisile Patekile urged the families of kidnapping victims to refrain from paying the ransom and allow police to respond, but there have been cases where families have adhered to this and paid dearly for it.
On the other hand, paying these ransoms perpetuates the cycle of crime, as criminals become emboldened by successful ransom payments.
According to the World Population Review list, South Africa recently ranked sixth globally as a kidnap for ransom hotspot.
Insurance data and services provider OLEA CEO Richard Hood said as of the 2022/23 financial year, the total number of kidnappings reported reached 15,343.
He said high net-worth individuals and their families were especially targeted, with the criminals demanding huge ransom amounts for their release, and often netting millions of rand.
The highest ransom paid to date was R150m to secure the release of a kidnapped person, while in another case R72m was extorted in return for freeing a wealthy individual or a member of their family. It’s not clear in which year these were paid.
In Gauteng for example, there were 2,051 kidnappings between October and December last year. Of this figure 77% involved a demand for a ransom, 1% was extortion and 7% was for human trafficking.
It is comforting to note that the Hawks notched up another victory at the weekend when they arrested three men in connection with the kidnapping of a hostage for ransom. The hostage was rescued from the suspects’ house in Woodstock, Western Cape.
Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Col Tommy Mthombeni pointed out in March this year that people who are kidnapped were not necessarily business people with a lot of money.
He said while the majority were business people, some of the victims were university students, and in some instances kidnappers demanded as little as R2,000.
However, with the rise in this type of crime and the overworked and understaffed police service unable to deal with all cases expeditiously, families might be tempted to pay the ransom to secure the freedom of their loved ones.
Police, and particularly the crime intelligence units, should escalate the fight against this rising crime scourge. No-one is exempt from it, from MPs such as Kwankwa, to foreign businessmen and even children. Every person looks like a commodity to an orchestrator of such crimes.
While the instinct to pay a ransom to ensure a loved one's safety is understandable, it is vital to support law enforcement efforts to dismantle the criminal networks behind these kidnappings. Only through a united and determined effort can there be hope to curb this disturbing trend and restore a sense of safety and security for all.
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