As kidnappings increase in the country, businesspeople and the wealthy are increasingly turning to personal bodyguards for protection.
According to the latest crime statistics, measuring incidents reported from October to December last year, kidnappings are on the rise, with nearly 5000 cases nationwide and more than 2500 of those in Gauteng. This is far higher than the 2605 kidnappings recorded in the same period in 2021.
Speaking to City Press, one close protection officer who had worked as a bodyguard in Iraq for 11 years said the market is ripe in South Africa.
“There are many cases where men who are in competition with one another will target each other.
“Similarly, people try to intimidate or threaten someone into awarding tenders to their companies. It’s particularly in this area that the threat to the man or his loved ones’ lives increases.
“That’s also why there are often kidnappings. If criminals can’t get to you, they start watching and targeting your loved ones,” the man said.
He said the cost of a close protection officer can vary, but can average between R2 500 and R3 000 a day.
Why the increase?
According to a study released earlier this year, kidnapping incidents more than doubled over the last decade, with a rapid spike in the last three years.
It pointed to several factors, including a crackdown on cash-in-transit heists and other more complex crimes, leading to criminals choosing hijacking as an activity with the least resistance, “offering big rewards with far fewer risks than traditional heists or home robberies.”
It also cited kidnapping syndicates crossing international borders to prey on easier targets.
“Criminal syndicates now operate transnationally, with leaders in Johannesburg orchestrating kidnappings in Mozambique while simultaneously establishing local networks to identify new targets,” it found.
In some cases, ransoms are demanded in US dollars because they are widely used in markets across Africa and beyond the continent.
The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has noted that “kidnapping has also become a key tactic in armed robberies and carjacking”, which is driven by more localised syndicates.
It suggested the large amount of carjackings in Gauteng may be a reason why the province is also the kidnapping capital of the country.
However, it is worth noting that in the latest crime statistics, kidnappings still increased, despite the amount of carjackings and robberies at residential properties decreasing.
This suggests that extortion or more sinister reasons for kidnapping are increasing.
How to address it
The ISS argued that “targeted, intelligence-driven policing is key to addressing the rise in kidnapping and aggravated robberies”
“Any strategy should focus on identifying and disrupting the individuals, groups, and networks benefitting from armed robberies. Such a strategy should incorporate a focus on tackling firearm crime, as most robberies involve using firearms.”
It also called for the “complete overhaul” of crime intelligence in the country, removing corruption from the system, and increasing accountability to parliament and other watchdog agencies.
