South Africa is fast becoming one of the world’s kidnap-for-ransom hotspots, now ranked sixth globally based on the increasing prevalence of such crimes.
High net-worth individuals and their families are especially targeted, with the criminals demanding huge ransom amounts for their release, and often netting millions. More than 15,000 kidnappings were reported to the police in the 2022/23 period alone.
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.
According to insurance data and services provider OLEA, the World Population Review list shows that South Africa has gone up the list to sixth when it comes to kidnapping for ransom and other forms of kidnappings which do not include long stints of abduction — referred to as “express kidnappings”.
“As of the 2022/23 financial year, the total number of kidnappings reported reached 15,343. Our consultants have already worked on over 56 cases and the number is climbing with a lot of threat-and-extortion cases,” OLEA CEO Richard Hood said in an interview.
He said the figure could be even higher as many kidnappings go unreported due to threats made to the kidnaped person’s family, and the criminals knowing where they live.
According to a list compiled by the World Population Review — an independent for-profit organisation that tracks global population data and demographics —the No 1 kidnap hotspot in the world is Turkey, followed by Lebanon.
Surprisingly, relatively low crime countries in Europe, North America and the Middle East make the top 10. Kuwait, a relatively stable country in the Middle East, is third on the list, followed by two Western countries — Canada and Belgium — and then South Africa. New Zealand, Pakistan, Eswatini, and the UK make up the rest of the list.
According to the World Population Review list, kidnappings in many developed countries take the form of the abduction of a child by a parent who does not have legal custody. However, it noted instances where children in more developed jurisdiction were kidnapped for more nefarious purposes such as human trafficking or sexual exploitation.
“In less-developed countries, kidnappings are often politically or economically motivated. Some kidnappings are carried out by insurgents as an act of terrorism. Other kidnappings are performed by individuals seeking to raise funds, either by holding the abductee for ransom or selling them to human traffickers,” the compilers of the list noted.
Countries in Latin America such as Mexico, which normally feature high on such lists, were not in the top 10.
Many locations where kidnappings took place in South Africa last year were not in wealthy suburbs ... but rather in low-income areas
— OLEA CEO Richard Hood
Hood said kidnapping for ransom was also on the rise in the rest of the continent.
“In Africa, they have worked on over 356 cases mainly in Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali — so you see it’s happening all over Africa.”
He said South Africa has never been anywhere close to No 6 on the list and was previously near the bottom. However over the past couple of years, kidnappings have spiralled out of control.
According to South African Police Service (SAPS) crime stats, kidnapping incidents recorded a more than triple surge from 4,306 to 15,342, representing an increase of 256.3%, or 11,036 counts, over the past decade.
Between 2021 and 2023, Gauteng saw the highest increase in reported kidnappings at 74%, followed by the Eastern Cape with a 42.7% increase, Limpopo saw a 42.6% rise in abductions. The Northern Cape saw a 40% rise in such reported crimes. The Western Cape saw a 7.4% decline in reported kidnappings in the same period.
Hood said the latest trends reveal that wealthy individuals are no longer the sole targets of organised kidnapping syndicates, but threats now extend to relatives, friends, and associates for ransoms as small as R500,000 or less. They also noted an increase in kidnappings in low income areas.
“The highest kidnapping ransoms in South Africa paid to date have been from R72m to R150m, all within Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and Polokwane. These were ordinary businessmen and women.
“The kidnapping syndicates are definitely expanding their market, this trend shows that many locations where kidnappings took place in South Africa last year were not in wealthy suburbs of Johannesburg and Pretoria, but rather in low-income areas.”
He could, however, not specify which portion of the more than 15,000 reported kidnappings in South Africa involved wealthy individuals being extorted for money, and which ones were express kidnappings — where people are taken from the streets or during hijackings or robberies to access their bank cards or mobile banking apps over several hours or days.
He said kidnapping syndicates seeking ransoms could place families under surveillance for up to six months before they identify their next victim.
South Africa has seen several instances in recent years where businesspeople were kidnapped with the demand of a ransom made to their families.
In 2021, Jahyr Abdula, the son of Mozambique’s richest man, and former Vodacom board chair Salimo Abdula were kidnapped in the East Rand. Gauteng-based Mozambican businessman Faizel Charloos was arrested for masterminding the kidnapping in which millions in ransom money was paid.
Last month, Shamshudeen “Dawood” Faki, one of the owners of Dawood Frozen Foods, was found dead in Brakpan after he was kidnapped. In March, businessman Neal Ah-Tow was released after a ransom of $1.4m was demanded. No ransom was paid.
As with other parts of the world, international organised crime syndicates also operate locally. These groups flourish often because at-risk youth struggle to access employment in the formal sector. They also grew up experiencing violence in their homes, schools and streets, and therefore accept violence as normal
— Lizette Lancaster, manager of the crime and justice information hub at the Institute for Security Studies
As recently as March, Zimbabwean businessman and fuel trader Evans Katumba was kidnapped by armed assailants in Durban. He was reportedly found dead in Durban in April.
Manager of the crime and justice information hub at the Institute for Security Studies, Lizette Lancaster, said while not yet as endemic as in some countries in Latin America and parts of Africa, South Africa’s kidnapping rates are high and climbing in the rankings.
“The rise in kidnappings is linked to the growth and entrenchment of local syndicates and organised crime groups. As with other parts of the world, international organised crime syndicates also operate locally.
“These groups flourish often because at-risk youth struggle to access employment in the formal sector. They also grew up experiencing violence in their homes, schools, and streets and therefore accept violence as normal.”
She said most “kidnappings” were so-called “express kidnappings” where people are taken from the streets or during hijackings or robberies to access their bank cards or mobile banking app over several hours or a day or two.
“Many are opportunistic, where a potential target is simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, while others are often deliberately targeted because there is information or suspicion that the target has access to large cash amounts. Depending on the sophistication of the group, this can range from a couple of thousand to millions of rand.”
She added that the most crucial intervention was to target the groups and syndicates to dismantle and disrupt the networks.
“Kidnappings need to be linked to possible groupings and investigated by dedicated units through network analysis and intelligence-driven investigations supported by forensics.
“Not only do high-value kidnappings need to be prioritised, but so too do all the robbery syndicates responsible for armed robberies. The detection, arrest, and prosecution of leading syndicate members will disrupt and deter these crimes and substantially curb the number of incidents,” Lancaster said.
SAPS spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe could not immediately respond to questions from Business Times on the rise in kidnappings.
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