Community Safety
- (a) How many kidnappings have been recorded in (i) 2020/21 and (ii) 2021/22 to date, (b) for each financial year in (a), how many of the kidnap victims were children and (c) how many (i) hostage crises, (ii) negotiating teams and (iii) trained hostage negotiators are there in the province;
- how prevalent are child kidnappings in the Western Cape;
- whether child kidnappings are linked to organised crime; if so, what are the relevant details;
- whether his Department is monitoring reports of attempted child kidnappings; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
The reply of the South African Police Service (SAPS):
4. Note:
Kidnapping consists of unlawfully and intentionally depriving a person of his or her freedom of movement and/or, if such a person is a child, the custodians of their control over the child.
In many cases kidnapping will be the secondary charge where the primary charge is rape or robbery. In the cases of children, there are kidnapping cases that are as a result of custody disputes between parents.
(1) (a) (i) 886
(ii) 631
(b) (i) 121
(ii) 82
(c) (i) 1
(ii) 7
(iii) 38
(2) There were on average 10 child kidnappings per month for the reporting period. (see note above for explanation)
(3) None of the recorded cases were linked to organised crime.
(4) The Department does monitor reports of attempted child kidnappings should any police inefficiencies be identified, the matter will be referred to the Office of the Western Cape Police Ombudsman (WCPO) for investigation.
Should an arrest be made in an attempted child kidnapping case, the case is referred to the Court Watching Brief Unit (CWBU) of the Department to monitor this case. The Unit records kidnapping cases that are struck off the Court rolls and where systematic failures caused these cases to be removed from said rolls; either due to incomplete investigations or a docket that was not brought to Court.
The systematic failures are brought to the attention of the Provincial Commissioner of SAPS by the CWBU and WCPO with a request to implement remedial action.
The CWBU has not referred any case to WCPO neither has there been a request to monitor a case of this nature recently.
