Kidnapping is on the rise in South Africa, Police Minister Bheki Cele warns, and criminal syndicates are not only targeting wealthy business people and their families but also university students.
“An intelligence-driven operation led to the arrest of several suspects who kidnapped the victims for ransom related to municipality tenders,” said the SAPS. More concerningly, the SAPS further highlighted a trend of these syndicates targetting university students by setting up fake dates via the dating app Grindr.
Abramjee said that these smaller gangs are also the ones responsible for the increase in kidnapping cases in relation to hijackings, where the driver of the vehicle is taken with the car, which security services such as Fidelity have also reported.