Kidnappers demand R44m for Zhauns owner's safe return

Published Aug 10, 2017

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Cape Town - Kidnappers are demanding a ransom of $3.3 million for the safe return of abducted businessman Sadeck Zhaun Ahmed.

The Daily Voice can reveal that the family was on Wednesday night locked in tense negotiations with the kidnappers, who are believed to be Cape Flats underworld figures.

Family spokesman Hanif Loonat confirmed the 71-year-old Ahmed is still alive.

It is understood the family was on Wednesday night awaiting a phone call from the snatched businessman regarding the ransom his abductors are demanding.

According to a source close to the family, the kidnappers want $3.3 million (R44 million) for his safe return.

“It’s been discovered that the kidnappers are high flying gangsters on the Cape Flats,” says the insider.

“They made this ransom demand on Sunday in their second phone call to the family. The relatives spoke to Mr Ahmed and we can confirm he was alive at that stage.”

He says the family has now contracted a private investigator to assist in finding Ahmed.

Ahmed was taken by four armed and masked men from in front of his business, Zhauns, in Salt River Main Road on 25 July shortly before 6pm.

File picture: Leon Knipe

Ahmed, who started Zhauns, has been selling machines that manufacture toilet rolls, ice cream and popcorn and other items for the past 40 years.

Witnesses say Ahmed and his driver were busy loading something into the boot of his white BMW when a double cab bakkie pulled up behind them.

Both men were tasered and the thugs bundled Ahmed into the white Ford bakkie, which was later found abandoned in Walmer Estate.

Loonat said that they have been in tense talks with the people who took Ahmed.

“The family is talking and going back and forth, but there are no new developments yet,” he said last night.

“They have been having a hard time and finding it very difficult to deal with Boeta Zhaun’s kidnapping and are pleading with the community who might have seen something or heard anything to come forward and help,” says Loonat.

Anyone with information about Ahmed’s kidnapping is asked to contact Warrant Officer Phillips on 083 244 3688 or Hanif Loonat on 082 860 7863.

Daily Voice

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