Johannesburg - Pretoria businessman Omar Carrim has been missing for 101 days.
Carrim, 76, was kidnapped on August 3 soon after leaving his business, Home Hyper City, in the CBD.
“Carrim is not in good health and we are very concerned. We appeal to the kidnappers to release him immediately,” said anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee.
He said the family was “very distraught" and the community was anxious. “Carrim is not well and we appeal to the kidnappers to show mercy and release him. It’s over three months now and this is going on for far too long,” Abramjee told the Saturday Star.
The Carrim family have refused to comment personally and have called on South Africans to pray for the safe return of their father.
Abramjee said the spate of kidnappings was “very worrying": "I am taking up the matter with the Minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula.”
Mbalula told Parliament recently that investigations “were on-going”.
Abramjee said it appeared that international crime syndicates were at work locally.
“The kidnappers demand ransom running into millions of rand. We saw the same trend in Mozambique over a few years and it stopped when law enforcement agencies made several arrests,” he said.
Sources have told the Saturday Star that a substantial ransom was paid some weeks ago to get Carrim released, "but he is still in captivity".
“Sometimes the kidnappers demand more money. In a recent kidnapping in Cape Town, millions of rand was paid to get the victim freed, although the family have denied it,” said one source.
Abramjee said law enforcement agencies internationally had to intervene to stop the spate of kidnappings in South Africa.