DURBAN - The Bluff Community Policing Forum’s reaction teams would not have been able to help Brighton Beach SAPS arrest a four-year-old girl’s alleged kidnappers without the aid of Snipr cameras, the CPF said.
On its Bluff CPF/COP Emergency Page on Facebook, the CPF said it bought three more Snipr cameras in order to protect the community’s entrance and exit points.
“These cameras have proven to be very successful,” the post read.
“Our CPF reaction teams would never have been able to help SAPS BB arrest the perpetrators who kidnapped the four-year-old girl, without the aid of this technology.”
It thanked those who donated monthly to the Bluff CPF, saying that without the donations, they would not be able to invest in sophisticated tracking technology.
“We would like to thank the anonymous group of residents who sponsored the manufacture of four, six metre camera poles,” the CPF said.
Sister publication The Mercury reported that on Monday, the four suspects appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on kidnapping charges after the four-year-old girl was snatched in Clairwood, south of Durban, on December 3.
Police found the child in the early hours of the following morning.
The Mercury reported that the court heard from the State that two of the accused had reportedly confessed to the kidnapping.
The accused were not being named as two are related to the victim and cannot be identified in order to protect her identity.
The other two have not been named due to further investigations being carried out by the police.
State advocate Ranie Pillay told the court that the State would be opposing bail. Pillay also requested that the matter be adjourned for further investigation by police after two of the accused confessed.
Magistrate F Seedat remanded the four accused into police custody and adjourned the case until December 13.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said the girl’s mother, who lived on Dayal Road, had said that at 1.40pm on Friday, while she was at work, her neighbour had called her to say she had seen an unknown man leaving the area with her daughter.
The mother had said the child’s father was in Malawi, therefore it was impossible that he would be there to fetch the child. She had then requested the witness to look for the child as she was at work.
“According to the victim's friends, they were playing at the Dayal Road sports ground when an unknown man, who was sitting not far from where they were playing, called them to come nearer and play next to him. The victim responded to the man, went to him. They saw both the victim and the suspect walking away,” Mbele said.
She said a kidnapping case was opened at Brighton Beach SAPS and a search team was immediately formed to search for the child.
“After an intensive investigation by the team, the child was found at Q Section in uMlazi. The victim was found unharmed and reunited with her mother,” Mbele said.
“All four suspects, aged between 17 and 79, were immediately arrested and taken to Brighton Beach police station for further processing.”
Mbele said it was further alleged that the suspects were going to leave for Nkandla, northern KwaZulu-Natal, on Saturday morning to perform a ritual with the child.
To comment on this story send a WhatsApp message to our BackChat column on 071 485 7995
DAILY NEWS