In the past week, at least two businessmen have been kidnapped from their businesses, one on Monday and another on Thursday, and a third was shot dead on Friday morning.
A new wave of kidnappings is shaking the Portuguese community living in South Africa, with dozens of people kidnapped in recent months, particularly executives, traders and businessmen, several sources told Lusa.
The last week, at least two businessmen were kidnapped in their commercial establishments, one on Monday and another on Thursday, and one The third was shot dead.on Friday morning, following a failed kidnapping attempt in the city center of Johannesburg, the African country’s economic capital.
The Portuguese Forum of South Africa, a Portuguese-South African non-governmental organization based in Johannesburg, informed Lusa of another incident that occurred recently, in which the wife of a Madeiran businessman was shot dead while accompanying, in a second vehicle, the husband who I was coming back. she gets home at the end of a work day.
A Portuguese citizen living in Johannesburg, who asked to remain anonymous, told Lusa that a family member, living in the Mozambican capital Maputo, was recently kidnapped along with his wife, after crossing the border on the way to Johannesburg.
The couple was kidnapped on the road by six criminals, disguised as South African police officers, and taken to an informal neighborhood in the northeast of the country, he said.
According to South African police, the provinces in the country most affected by the crime of kidnapping are Gauteng (51.7%), where Johannesburg and Pretoria, the country’s capital, are located, and KwaZulu-Natal (1.4%), which borders Mozambique and where the port city of Durban is located.
“There is an increase in this type of crimes, which began to develop from 2010-2011 with origins in Mozambique (…). During the year 2023, 15,400 kidnappings were recorded in South Africa,” the counselor of the Madeiran communities in South Africa, José Luís da Silva, told Lusa.
“From January until now, I think there are 12 or 13 compatriots [raptados na comunidade portuguesa na África do Sul]”, the Madeiran councillor stressed.
Most of the incidents have occurred in Gauteng, the epicenter of kidnappings and high crime in the country, according to the South African Police (SAPS).
Official data, consulted by Lusa, indicate that, in the last quarter of 2023 alone, the South African police recorded 4,577 kidnappings in the country, an increase of 11% (453 more cases) compared to the same period of the previous year.
In the opinion of José Luís da Silva, the recent wave of kidnappings in the Portuguese community is due to several factors.
“I think this worsening situation is due, first of all, to the fact that people do not care about their personal safety; they do not observe, they do not read the signs, they do not talk to others; then there is routine, and kidnapping is a big problem for a criminal,” he explained.
“Routine is what kills our merchants who insist on opening and closing at the same time, going to the bank at the same time, the same people in the same car, routine is what kills these people,” said the Madeiran councillor, for whom Portuguese merchants “have to invest in security, and not only in video surveillance, but also in human resources to react, to investigate, they have to anticipate banditry.”
José Luís da Silva stressed that much of the business in the Madeiran community “is done mainly in cash” and, for example, “butcher shops are companies that generate a lot of money, they have a lot of sales.”
In addition to the Portuguese, José Luís da Silva pointed out that the Indian and Muslim communities “are unfortunate”, because “they are kidnapped every hour to take their money, their cars, they kidnap women so that their husbands pay ransoms and vice versa.” .
South African journalist and anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee, host of the ENCA channel’s CrimeWatch television programme, told Lusa that South Africa is witnessing a “major attack” against members of the Portuguese community in the country due to worsening crime. kidnapping in the country.
“The scourge of kidnappings has worsened month by month, now we have one of the highest statistics on the continent, it is simply out of control,” he stressed.
“Historically, various communities have been targeted, be it Ethiopians, Somalis, Pakistanis, Indians and even local South Africans, now we are seeing a major attack on members of the Portuguese community,” he said.
Yusuf Abramjee stressed that “there have been dozens of kidnappings of Portuguese citizens in recent months” and added that “urgent intervention is necessary” by the South African police.
“We know that there are several organised crime syndicates involved, we know that historically there have been many kidnappings in Mozambique and we would not be surprised if some of these cases could be linked to Mozambique, where gangs are very active and people are kidnapped on a weekly basis, held for ransoms that run into millions of rands or dollars, and it is a growing problem,” he said.
Source: Observadora
