Cape Town – UDM deputy leader Nqabayomzi Kwankwa did not attend the presidential inauguration in Pretoria on Wednesday after being hijacked, kidnapped, and robbed on Tuesday afternoon in Mfuleni, Cape Town.
“The Western Cape anti-kidnapping multidisciplinary task team, comprising organised crime and DPCI [Hawks] investigators as well as crime intelligence, is piecing together details after an incident where a 44-year-old man was allegedly hijacked, kidnapped and robbed by armed suspects in Driftsands, Mfuleni, on Tuesday afternoon,” Times Live quoted police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa as saying.
UDM secretary-general Yongama Zigebe said that as Kwankwa was heading to Cape Town International Airport to fly to Gauteng, he made a detour to his usual barber shop in Khayelitsha Site B.
He was kidnapped at the barber shop, where he was bound and placed in a car boot.
Party leader Bantu Holomisa confirmed in statement on Tuesday that a R10,000 ransom was paid for Kwankwa’s release.
We are relieved that UDM Deputy President Nqabayomzi Kwankwa is safe after being kidnapped and robbed today. We wish him well in recovering from this ordeal. https://t.co/xTKeM09ha9
— Bantu Holomisa (@BantuHolomisa) June 18, 2024
“The United Democratic Movement (UDM) would like to confirm that its Deputy President, Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, MP, was kidnapped today on his way to Cape Town Airport en route to the Presidential inauguration. A ransom of R10,000 was demanded for his safe return.
“The UDM paid the ransom, and Mr Kwankwa was safely released, albeit shaken and traumatised. All his belongings, including his vehicle, were stolen,” Holomisa said.
Kwankwa is now recuperating with his family.
The investigation continues, with no arrests made yet.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
