Stella Kgomo, 22, shook in disbelief as her younger sister, 14, a Grade 7 pupil at EP Baumann Primary School in Johannesburg, detailed the horror of seeing her schoolmate being whisked away by three armed men outside her school yesterday.
The teenager told her sister how the kidnapped girl had tried to fight and to slip out of the hands of her assailants who were trying force her into their getaway car, a silver Toyota, at about 7am, soon after her mom had dropped her off.
“One of the men seated at the back of the vehicle pulled her by the legs, forcing her inside the vehicle as she fought them. The men got into the car and drove off. We heard her screaming until the car disappeared,” said the teenager.
The little girl was describing the kidnapping of an 11-year-old girl who was snatched by heavily armed men outside the Mayfair school.
The kidnappers and the girl are still at large, according to the police.
Sowetan established that the kidnapped girl’s family owned a couple of businesses around Mayfair.
“She is a pretty girl and people liked her. She would be dropped off at school by nice cars,” the Grade 7 pupil told her sister.
Kgomo had been at college in the Joburg CBD earlier, after her mother called her to fetch her two siblings she heard the news of the kidnapping from a radio at work. She had to run to the school as the news of the kidnapping spread after the school started calling parents to come collect their children.
“I’m shocked because the incident has caused a lot of panic, especially because my siblings are also girls. We don’t know if this is an isolated incident or we should stop letting the kids come to school,” Kgomo told Sowetan.
When Sowetan arrived at the school at about 10.30am there was a lot of commotion outside as dozens of parents had arrived to collect their children. The pupils were grouped inside the yard by the gate while three teachers were monitoring them as about seven armed guards from a private security company stood guard outside the gate. The guards had a hard time controlling the parents who were in a panic, shouting and calling out children’s names to get their attention.
Traffic had been piling up on the tiny street next to the school, causing tempers to flare. “Move forward! Move forward! Move forward,” one of the guards was heard shouting at the drivers.
A woman whose grandson goes to the school told Sowetan that he was traumatised by the kidnapping incident. With her hands shaking uncontrollably, she said she was devastated by what had happened. “I cannot comprehend what just happened. Everybody is shaken by this,” she said.
Asanda Ngxolo, who lives next to the school, said she had heard the girl scream but did not go outside immediately. “I really thought that it was a naughty scream because children play all the time before entering the school gates. My heart pours out to the family and we are praying for her safe return as the community of Mayfair.”
A private security guard at the school said they would be camping at the school’s gate for the next three days to ensure the situation calmed down.
A security patroller from the armed response unit and a member of the Mayfair community policing forum told Sowetan that kidnappings were becoming a growing business in the area between foreign business owners who abducted each other for ransom.
“This is not the first incident to happen here and it’s not reported to police because during our investigation we also found that the same gangs have people assigned in our public parks to sell drugs and commit petty crimes, and refuse to reveal the syndicates.”
Anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee said: “Over the past two months South African Indians, Chinese businessman, Somalians have been targeted for ransoms. The modus operandi is the same. They kidnap the person and keep them locked up and when they get what they wanted they drop the victims off far from their homes.
“These are very desperate syndicates that have powerful connections. They get away with these crimes all the time and the police are failing to crack the mystery.”
Gerard Labuschagne, police investigative forensic psychologist, said the increase in the kidnappings among business people and children was because of global organised gangs who had moved into SA because they felt the time was right, or that law enforcement capabilities were ineffective, and they were targeting high value people.
“They have international links and are very technologically sophisticated. It is most probably the same groups that were previously active in Mozambique. Children are typically not the focus of these organised gangs to date, with the Moti children being among the first,” he said.
Labuschagne said cases were being reported. “However, we will never know how many are not reported to SAPS. Even if reported to the police the family is entitled to make use of private negotiators and private investigators.”
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