Ransom kidnapping increased in South Africa
SAPS show that the number of kidnapping has increased dramatically.
3641 instances were reported between January and March 2023.
According to police, kidnapping increased from 3,832 incidents in 2013 to almost 11,000 cases in 2021, with Gauteng accounting for the majority of those cases.
Crime statistics from the South African Police Service (SAPS) show that the number increased dramatically from 3,832 incidents in 2013 to around 11,000 cases in 2021. 3,641 instances were reported between January and March 2023, an increase of 10% from the same time in 2022.
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It is difficult to find information on the amounts of ransoms paid over the past ten years. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, however, concluded in a risk assessment of South Africa for 2022 that the actual number of kidnappings for ransom and extortion cases may be significantly greater than what is now reported to the police.
According to the research, many incidents are probably not reported enough because of “persistent threats to the victim’s and his or her family’s well-being, even after release.”
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WHO ARE TO BLAME FOR THE KIDNAPPING CRISIS?
The rise in transnational organized criminal syndicates operating in the nation, according to analysts, is largely to blame for this rise in kidnappings.
Asian businessmen and their families have been frequent targets of similar syndicates in neighboring Mozambique for decades.
This has now spread to South Africa, where armed gangs have started to target foreign people establishing enterprises there. Some of these gangs are sophisticated, while others run tiny operations.
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WHAT DID SAPS ESTABLISH?
The Anti-Kidnapping Task Team was established by the SAPS in November 2021 as a result of the rise in kidnappings across the nation.
The team’s top priority has been to find suspects and kidnapping syndicates across the nation.
In the two years since it was established, the team has had some success, having looked into 134 ransom demand instances and making 124 arrests.
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The Gauteng province, the economic hub of all of Southern Africa and the location of Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital, is at the epicenter of the kidnapping epidemic.
The province has been the source of more than half of the cases so far. But in quest of fresh prey, gangs have begun dispersing across the nation.