Pretoria - The last message sent by student activist Vusi Mahlangu before he went missing on Tuesday morning was chilling: “I am either kidnapped or arrested and I’m bleeding in a dark place at Mthatha, my phone is about to die.”
Mahlangu, the anti-outsourcing campaign organiser, was in the Eastern Cape. He led anti-outsourcing protests in Pretoria at Unisa, TUT and Tuks.
His sudden disappearance is shrouded in mystery and his organisation has expressed concern, saying it was anxious to hear from him or news of his whereabouts.
#OutsourcingMustFall national spokesman Mametlwe Sebei said despite Mahlangu informing them via WhatsApp that he suspected he was being followed, they were not plunged into a state of panic as their members had previously reported incidents of being followed.
Read: Alarm after student activist disappears
“Vusi left a message that a car was following them the whole day,” said Sebei.
“It’s a norm for some of our members to be followed and they are used to it.”
Sebei said Mahlangu sent them another message and informed them that a taxi they were travelling in was stopped by heavily armed men who were in the vehicle that had been following them.
“He later sent another message saying he was being interrogated and I told him to ask his captors on what legal authority they were interrogating him,” said Sebei.
He did not hear from Mahlangu until 4.30pm when he sent a message indicating that he had either been arrested or abducted.
“That was the last time he communicated with us.
“I was hoping the problem would be resolved by the time we woke up this (yesterday) morning,” he said.
Sebei said in spite of this, someone appeared to have accessed Mahlangu’s cellphone as the messages sent to him were being opened.
“There is speculation that Vusi’s phone is being accessed by someone. You can see he was online (on WhatsApp) at 7am (yesterday) but he hasn’t responded to any of the messages we have sent him,” said Sebei.
He also lamented the police’s apathetic approach to the matter and accused them of dragging their feet in trying to find the missing student activist.
“No progress has been made. We have been pressuring police to investigate but they said we need to wait for 48 hours before they could act on the matter,” he said.
Meanwhile, Eastern Cape police spokesman Colonel Mzukilsi Satyela said police were investigating Mahlangu’s sudden disappearance and were hoping to locate him soon.
“We are investigating the matter and hope to track down Mr Mahlangu.
“Police are conducting interviews with some locals.
“We strongly believe that the information we receive from them will be crucial in the investigation and in locating Mr Mahlangu,” said Satyela.
Mahlangu had been mobilising support for the #OutsourcingMustFall campaign at Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape where workers and students have begun embarking on protests demanding the end of the outsourcing of workers by private companies at the university.
Posters of the student activist have been circulating on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, with well wishers expressing their concern over Mahlangu’s disappearance.
An extract of the poster reads: “We have very little information except that Vusi suspects that some security companies may be involved.
“He has informed us that he was taken from a taxi and forcibly placed into a car which took him to an unknown location where he was assaulted.
“Fellow activists have reported this information to Madeira Police Station.
“We are urgently looking to bring attention to this matter to make sure that Vusi is released as soon as possible.”
Pretoria News