The alarming increase of child kidnappings in South Africa
It has been 299 days since six-year-old Joshlin Smith of Saldanha was kidnapped in Saldanha and she is one of several children who have not made their way back home for Christmas this year.
According to crime experts, the latest official crime statistics show 50 kidnappings were reported to police per day – up by nearly 8% compared to the same period in 2023.
Lizette Lancaster, crime expert at Crime Hub at the The Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said data from the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) annual crime statistics showed that in the past decade, kidnappings increased by 264% from 4 692 in 2014/15 to 17 061 in 2023/24.
“The risk of kidnapping varies across the country. Gauteng is the most affected province, recording more than half (51%) of all reported incidents, followed by KwaZulu-Natal (20%), Western Cape, and Mpumalanga with 6% each and the Eastern Cape with 5%.
“The remaining provinces contribute between 1% and 4% each,” said Lancaster.
“These often take the form of ‘express kidnappings’ where victims are kept for a few hours or days to facilitate the theft of their funds, usually held by banks.
“The victim is held hostage so they can be coerced into drawing money from ATMs or transferring their funds into accounts controlled by the criminals through mobile banking applications.
Lancaster said that kidnapping for ransom often made headlines, driving the perception that it was widespread and growing.
“However, less than 5% of all kidnappings reported to police are linked to ransom demands, human trafficking or extortion.
“While some of the kidnappings for ransom are orchestrated by sophisticated transnational organised groups specialising in high-value targets, most kidnappings are perpetrated by local crime groups.”
As it draws closer to the one year anniversary of Joshlin’s disappearance, prison officials remain mum on whether her mother, Racquel “Kelly” Smith had been moved to the mother and child wing at Pollsmoor Prison.
During court appearances, Smith appeared to be heavily pregnant.
Towards the end of March, which was nearly 10 months ago, Smith's family told court reporters that they did not know she was pregnant.
Singabakho Nxumalo, the national Correctional Services spokesperson said they could not comment on the matter because they had to protect the safety of the prisoner.
“The facility also includes a unit that houses mothers and their babies until the children reach the age of two.
“For security reasons, details about the specific location of inmates within the centre or the number of inmates in any particular unit cannot be disclosed publicly.”
To date there has been no new developments in the efforts to find her, even though SAPS is working with Interpol.
Ward councillor Vernon Vraagom, who has been active in Joshlin’s case said they were considering a prayer vigil as Christmas approaches.
In October the State dropped charges against one of the accused in Joshlin’s case, that of Lourentia Lombaard, who was charged along with Joshlin’s mother, her boyfriend, Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn and the matter has been postponed to January for pretrial at the Western Cape High Court.
Bianca van Aswegen from Missing Children SA said the past year had seen a rise in the number of children who were kidnapped or had disappeared and they were urging parents to be vigilant.
“It is the festive season, and school holidays and makes it even a more vulnerable time for our children.”
Leon Nel of Cold Cases South Africa said the motives for kidnapping children and adults were different.
“Adults are mostly money-motivated and children sexually/murder (silence/muti) related. “How to keep children safe from kidnappings and I have primarily dealt with social media scams of threatening to kidnap children – scams run from prisons (primarily).”