Cape Town - Police Minister Bheki Cele on Thursday said that there were successes in cracking down on kidnapping and extortion cases in the Western Cape but more still needed to be done.
Briefing the media on the crime situation in the province, Cele said there was a national team led by a general from Crime Intelligence to probe both crimes.
He said while there were problems, the team seemed to be doing good work. “There has been a serious response in this province when it comes to this,” he said.
On Monday, five suspects appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on charges of conspiracy to commit a kidnapping and other charges related to the failed kidnapping of a businesswoman of Chinese nationality.
Cele noted the rescuing of Cape Town businessman Ismail Rajah after 111 days and another case where a 6-year-old boy was kidnapped and a suspect nabbed in Gauteng the following day.
“Yes, there are cases that have not been resolved that are pursued,” he said before mentioning the attempt to kidnap Lansdowne-based businessman Khalied Parker.
National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said they regarded extortion and kidnappings as organised crimes.
He maintained that the provincial task team was working on these cases. The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and its partners from the interfaith community joined the briefing.
MJC deputy president Moulana Abdul Khaliq Ebrahim Allie said more money needed to be invested in youth to fight crime.
“We must have prevention programmes for crimes for our communities in places such as Mitchells, Hanover Park and Manenberg. We need the honorable members to keep our province and our communities safe and to empower our neighbourhood watches.
“They are doing a great job in the areas where they operate. They spend nights protecting our people. We need to look at youth development very seriously and we need to see where we spend our money because our youth are the future,” said Ebrahim Allie.
Meanwhile, Cele was tight-lipped on the investigation by the Directorate of Priority Crimes into the murder of Vredendal Magistrate Romay van Rooyen at her Marina da Gama home in Muizenberg.
Van Rooyen was found dead by her family on Saturday and her car was later found abandoned in Mitchells Plain.
“There is just one thing we know that the case will be cracked going forward. “We are working on the speed and that should be soon succeed, especially with the family co-operating,” he said.
Cele also said there were still three or four outstanding murders from the judiciary that hadn’t been resolved in the Western Cape.
“As it happened with Ms Van Rooyen, that will be looked at by the DPIC going forward,” he said.
Cape Times