The Hawks in the Eastern Cape believe they have clipped the wings of a kidnapping syndicate that has been terrorising residents of Dimbaza, near Qonce, with the arrest of four suspects.One of them is a Buffalo City Metro councillor.
The accused appeared in the Dimbaza magistrate’s court on Thursday in connection with charges of attempted murder, attempted kidnapping and possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition.
The councillor faces an additional charge of defeating the ends of justice. The Hawks believe she aided one of the suspects, believed to be her boyfriend, to escape from a crime scene using her own vehicle.
The Buffalo City EFF proportional representative councillor, Kholeka Mpupha, 37, was arrested along with Cwenga Ludidi, 37, and appeared in court late last week charged with kidnapping a hardware store owner in Dimbaza on June 10.
Two other suspects, Mandilakhe Apools, 34, and Zolani Solani, 43, have since been added to the charge sheet, after the Hawks conducted further investigations and verification processes.
Ludidi and Solani were arrested in Dimbaza moments after the foiled kidnapping attempt.Mpupha and the man believed to be her boyfriend, Apools, were arrested separately the next day, Hawks provincial spokesperson Lt-Col Avele Fumba confirmed on Thursday.
Mpupha is out on R2,000 bail while her three co-accused remain in custody pending a formal bail application on June 27.
Mpupha was arrested in East London’s Amalinda Forest township. Apools was nabbed in Scenery Park while driving in the councillor’s vehicle, which had allegedly been used as a getaway car the previous day, according to the charge sheet.
It is the state’s case that the three men entered the hardware store on June 10, held the 42-year-old owner at gunpoint and tried to handcuff him, but only managed to cuff one hand.The scuffle that ensued attracted the attention of nearby community members, the charge sheet reads.
Shots were fired inside the hardware store, but no one was injured, the state says.
It alleges that as the assailants tried to drag the complainant into his own car, residents intervened, and the assailants fled.
Court documents — which are expected to be laid bare when the group appears again on June 27 — suggest the community members and police managed to track down two of the suspects to a house in Dimbaza later the same day.
Some clothing items believed to have been used during the botched kidnapping were reportedly found in the councillor’s vehicle, which she is alleged to have driven in the area at the time of the offence.
Images taken by police and seen by the Dispatch show firearms and piles of council documents that were allegedly found and seized from the home of one of the male suspects.
There is a possibility that further charges could be added against some of the accused.
It is understood that the three arrested men have refused to participate in an identification parade.
It is also understood that one of the accused is allegedly linked to another kidnapping incident in the same township.
On Thursday morning, access roads to the courthouse were guarded by heavily armed police officers.
A group of the councillor’s supporters and relatives gathered at the court entrance before she entered the tiny courtroom.
Inside the packed court, state prosecutor advocate Mzameli Kholiwe told magistrate Vuyisile Yaliwe that though the day had been scheduled for the formal bail application of those in custody, the defence’s legal representatives had prior commitments and had requested a postponement.
The three men were later whisked away in three speeding police vans after the proceedings, but Mpupha remained behind, spending more than an hour in the court corridors while trying to avoid media attention.
She later emerged wearing a different top and a hoodie, with her face covered by a mask, before being rushed out by supporters.
Fumba said on Thursday the Hawks believed the arrest of these four suspects was a victory in the fight against the scourge of kidnappings that had blighted the province in recent years.
“The kidnapping plan was almost completed because the [alleged] victim was deprived of his freedom of movement. He was handcuffed, and shots were even fired inside his premises.
“If it were not for the bravery of community members, their plans could have been fully executed and the businessman successfully kidnapped.
“We believe that by this arrest, we have somehow clipped part of the alleged syndicate operating in this area, which has been terrorising communities with a spate of kidnapping-for-ransom cases, which are very prevalent in this area.
“We have our suspicions that this could be part of a bigger syndicate operating in this area. “But all [will] be revealed during the bail application and later trial,” he said.
Daily Dispatch
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