Businessman rescued, Mozambican kidnapping ringleader killed

A kidnapped Indian businessman has been reunited with his family after the South African Police Service (SAPS) anti-kidnapping task team rescued him during an operation that also left a notorious Mozambican kidnapping kingpin dead.

The Indian businessman was kidnapped on July 23 this year from his business premises in Benoni.

Police traced the businessman to a shack in Alexandra shortly after midnight on Thursday. His safe return followed a shootout near the R21 in Kempton Park on Wednesday evening, where the suspect known as “Dollarman” was fatally wounded.

SAPS national spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the suspect, António Francisco Macamamo, was a major figure in regional kidnapping syndicates.

According to some security sources, Macamamo demanded that ransoms be paid strictly in US dollars — a strict condition that earned him the nickname Dollar Man.

Meanwhile KwaZulu-Natal police have scored another major breakthrough in their ongoing efforts to reduce violent crime, arresting five suspected extortionists and recovering four firearms along with a stash of drugs during a targeted operation in Mpumalanga township, Hammersdale.

Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said that police officers from the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Organised Crime, working together with Provincial Combat Team, Pinetown TRT, Empangeni and Durban Central K9 unit members, Pietermaritzburg and Provincial Criminal Record Centre teams executed search warrants and pounced on the suspects, four of whom were found inside one house.

"They were found in possession of three firearms and several rounds of ammunition," says Netshiunda.

"The fifth suspect was found in a separate rondavel and he was found in possession of a firearm, ammunition and 150 mandrax tablets," he added

Authorities believe the group is linked to a string of extortion and violent crimes that have plagued the Mpumalanga area in recent months. The suspects are expected to appear in the Mpumalanga Magistrate’s Court on Friday, 5 September, facing charges of possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition, and possession and dealing in drugs.

The bust comes just after KZN police announced the arrest of over 13,500 suspects in August alone, underscoring the province’s aggressive stance on crime, in which at least 13 542 suspects were taken into custody for various categories of crime. Police also recovered 360 firearms and 8 791 rounds of ammunition.

Cape Times