Cape Town – The family of a South African man held hostage for over three years by Islamic militants in Mali would receive the assistance of Gift of the Givers, the disaster relief organisation said on Thursday.
“Gift of the Givers has agreed to assist the McGown family in securing Stephen McGown’s release,” founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said.
Stephen McGown, a 37-year-old South African, who had been working in the United Kingdom, was taken hostage from a hotel in Mali on November 25, 2011.
Following the success of negotiation’s for al-Qaeda’s unconditional release of Yolande Korkie by Sooliman and team, the McGown team approached GOTG in hopes there may be a chance the same could happen for Stephen.
Since Stephen’s capture, videos featuring him have been released with the most recent making its way online on June 21.
Sooliman said the release of the latest video served as an opportunity.
“It has served as a catalyst for Gift of the Givers to make a more concerted attempt to assist the McGown family,” he said.
Sooliman added that over the last 12 hours GOTG had started with face-to-face meetings with spiritual and tribal leaders in West Africa and other initiatives.
Although the identity of Stephen’s captors had not yet been confirmed, Sooliman stated the necessity of making contact with them and said systems where being put in place to do so.
“(Until) now the McGown family does not know who the real captors are, what are the demands, where Stephen is held and who to communicate with,” he said.
Sooliman said a constructive effort has to be made to connect with the captors in order to commence meaningful dialogue.
Whilst accepting the request, Sooliman spoke of the difficulty of hostage situations and negotiations: “It is well understood that in situations like these there are no guarantees of success.”
He urged the public, both local or international, to come forward if they were able to assist.
“Through this media release we are requesting the captors to make direct contact with Gift of the Givers who are acting on behalf of the McGown family.”
ANA