Cape Town - The tight-knit Gatesville community where 8-year-old Abidah Dekhta was snatched from her school transportation on Friday, have said although the mood regarding children’s safety had shifted, the incident was not shocking.
On Sunday, Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said a task team was investigating the kidnapping.
“A multi-disciplinary task team consisting of DPCI Organised Crime Intelligence, provincial detectives, crime intelligence and HNT is investigating. The investigation is at a sensitive stage and no information can be divulged at this moment.”
Family members have said parents Aslam and Salama Dekhta are too distraught to speak to the media at this stage.
Dekhta owns a cellphone business off Hazel Road in the Gatesville CBD and is originally from India.
At the time of publication, other cellphone traders at the store said the family were still waiting to be contacted by the men who abducted their daughter on Friday morning.
Gatesville Neighbourhood Watch’s Fowzia Veerasamy, who was one of the first people on the scene, said the incident took place just after 7am.
She said the white Nissan double cab bakkie driving on Yusuf Gool Boulevard rapidly pulled into the driveway at Amber Court where the lift club driver had been parked in his maroon-coloured vehicle.
Two men described as “African” then jumped out of the vehicle with firearms and held the driver at gunpoint.
They took the driver’s cellphone and snatched Abirah by the neck, forcing her into the bakkie.
She was wearing her Rylands Primary School uniform. They sped off in the direction of College Road within about two minutes, leaving behind a black cap that fell off the head of one of the perpetrators.
Another pupil who was inside the vehicle with Abirah ducked beneath the seat and was assisted by a resident after the incident.
Veerasamy said: “I had requested trauma counsellors and social workers, because the victims left behind at the scene, they were my first priority.
“The first hour is a crucial hour because wherever that vehicle was, you can still have resources sent out.
“When the police arrived, I understood that they were trying to retrieve footage from surrounding areas or get the correct information but the community was frustrated because six vans were parked here.”
Crime activist Hanif Loonat said: “Many foreign businessmen sell cellphone SIM cards that are not legally Rica-ed. This makes it difficult for law enforcement to trace. Today a child of one of these businessmen has been kidnapped. My advice to him and others is to stop this practice. You’re doing us no favours in getting to the perpetrators.”
Foreign cellphone traders in Gatesville however say that they feel helpless when it comes to being victims of crime.
“Even if they catch the criminals, we don’t even get any feedback. Our family depends on us. If they see us being hurt and killed, do you think they will survive? So that is what we fear. Our hands are tied.
“We are not allowed to have guns or any weapons so we can’t even defend ourselves. But you see we left our country to come live here for a better life,” an anonymous trader said.