South Africa is fast becoming one of the world’s kidnap-for-ransom hotspots. It is now ranked sixth globally based on the increasing prevalence of such crimes.
More than 15 000 kidnappings were reported to the police in the 2022-2023 period alone.
Police in the Eastern Cape on Monday indicated they were investigating a case of kidnapping and robbery. This was after five family members were abducted and a large amount of money was taken from one of the victim’s bank accounts.
Crime expert Lizette Lancaster says other crimes committed by perpetrators create a conducive environment for robberies.
“The reason behind it is the rise of armed robberies. Associated with some of these robberies include carjacking, business robberies and home robberies. (This is) what we loosely term as street robberies where you walk and get snatched so that they can get your banking app or your bank cards,” she said.
Lancaster added these crimes form part of strategies ways employed by organised crime syndicates or even local types of syndicates to carry out the kidnappings.
