Gauteng turning into a kidnap ‘mecca’, warns expert

Action Society’s head of safety, Ian Cameron, has warned the latest Gauteng kidnappings statistics are a sign the country is heading to the same situation faced by Mexico when it comes to kidnappings.

“We will soon be known as one of the world’s kidnapping hotspots,” said Cameron.

“We have seen that the victims of the kidnappings seem to be prominent business people or often foreigners who come from elsewhere. I think it is going to be worse.”

Cameron was reacting to the second quarterly crime statistics from July 2022 to September 31 2022.

Kidnappings prevalent in all districts

The statistics were presented by Gauteng Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela yesterday.

Mawela said kidnappings were still prevalent in all Gauteng districts, with the top three stations being Vosloorus (57 counts), Johannesburg Central (55 counts) and Tembisa (52 counts).

“This crime trend is often associated with hijackings because during the commission of this crime, the victims are taken, deprived of their freedom of movement and dropped off at other places later,” Mawela said.

“Therefore it is not surprising that hijackings are the leading causative factor for this crime in the province. There were 1 048 cases of kidnappings that resulted from hijackings, 289 were robbery-related while 155 were taxi-related.”

ALSO READ: Crime Stats: Kidnappings double – over 4000 cases reported in 3 months

He said the contact crime category which included crimes such as murder, attempted murder, rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances increased by 17.9%.

This indicated a difference of 7 027 as compared to the same period last year. The statics also revealed Gauteng residents were most likely to be murdered while in public.

He said it was determined that the top three common places where these murders are likely to take place were:
• In public places like on the street, open fields, parking areas and abandoned buildings (528).
• 324 murders occurred at the residences of the victims or the perpetrators and
• Malls/Shopping centres/Supermarkets, etc. (134)

Mawela said during the three months under review, 1 579 people were killed in Gauteng, which was an increase of 19.6%.

“The top three contributors of the general increase of murder based on an analysis of a sample of 93.4% cases reported, revealed that arguments/misunderstanding/road rage/provocation (141 cases), followed by vigilantism/mob justice (109 cases) and robbery (92 cases),” said Mawela

Cameron said these crime statistics were an honest reflection of the state of safety and security in the country.

He said the criminal justice was a failure and the conviction rates were at the lowest they have ever been.

“We are a breathing ground for career criminals because criminals know that even if they are caught, the chances of them being successfully convicted are incredibly small,” he said.

ALSO READ: Crime stats: Over 7 000 murders committed between July and September

“If they are successfully convicted, the chances of them spending enough time in prison are incredibly small. If they do spend time in prison, they also continue doing criminal activities there as well. There are no real repercussions for criminals and criminality is a thriving business in SA.”

Criminals not scared of police

Cameron said he believed there were senior police and NPA officials involved in crime.

“It does not seem like they are taking criminality as seriously as the public wants them to take it,” said Cameron.

He said the latest murder rates also show that criminals were not scared of the police.

“There’s no intimidating factor from law enforcement. I think the criminals laugh at the police whether it is in Gauteng or elsewhere and it’s generally known that police are not capable of harming criminals,” said Cameron.

Cameron said if he was in charge of the police, he would restructure the entire SAPS management.

“I would do an in-debt skills audit to determine which of the senior management are qualified to be doing what they are doing. I would try to determine through polygraphs or otherwise who has been involved in any form of crime or corruption and then do what is necessary to remove them,” he said.

ALSO READ: Kidnapping kingpin Charloos’ alleged accomplice nabbed in Lenasia