Johannesburg – The City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith has warned that the country has a kidnapping crisis.
“The evidence is clear South Africa has a crisis on it's hands,” said Smith on Friday.
Police Minister Bheki Cele released the latest quarterly crime statistics for the first quarter in August with a sharp increase in kidnappings.
The statistics showed the 30 most affected police stations with 22 police stations in Gauteng, seven in KwaZulu-Natal and one in Mpumalanga.
Gauteng was identified as a kidnapping hot spot, according to the latest crime stats released by Cele.
According to the latest crime figures, 42.1% of kidnapping cases were connected to hijackings, while 2.5% and 0.5% were ransom kidnappings and human trafficking respectively.
“The Gauteng region alone recorded an increase from 189 cases reported between January and March of 2021, to 723 cases for the same period of 2022,” said Smith.
He added: “While the recorded cases in Cape Town don’t feature near these statistics, the evidence is clear South Africa has a crisis on it's hands.
“It is with great concern we received intelligence earlier this morning of an attempted kidnapping-gone-wrong in the Southern suburbs that sadly ended in the victim being fatally wounded,” he said.
Smith said he had scheduled a meeting comprising senior officials and representatives from an international consulting group which specialises in kidnappings and extortion training on Friday afternoon.
“Instead of waiting for national government and Cele to find a solution, we are exploring ways in which the City can become better equipped to protect our citizens in this regard,” he said.
Smith said they gathered in the meeting that the kidnapping syndicates were targeting people who had quick access to cash flows.
“These targets are then explored so as to identify their ‘pressure points’.
“The proud parent who poses at the front gates of their child’s first day at school gives them all the info needed.
“What school, where, when. And the info is freely available online.
“Social media has become the number one tool for those in organised crime,” said Smith.
Smith encouraged members of the public to review their privacy settings on social media and to ensure their data, posts and photos are set to private and only available to a small, select friends audience can interact with them.
IOL