[imagesource: Jeff Wicks]

There are a number of gruelling stories coming out of the crime trend of kidnapping businesspeople for ransom.

While we are seeing footage left, right, and centre of wealthy people being kidnapped so that gangs can make a quick buck, we never really hear about what happens once the kidnapped person is stuffed into the car and taken away.

Well, now we are hearing from a mother and businesswoman testifying in the Durban high court about her intense 162-day hostage situation that occurred after she was kidnapped in 2019.

TimesLIVE reported that Sandra Munsamy testified yesterday against the four men accused of abducting her for an attempted ransom of R154 million:

Munsamy gave evidence via a camera link as her alleged kidnappers — Lucas John Ndlovu and Dumisani Radebe alongside Mozambican nationals Jose Omega Tembe and Arthur Da Silva Mondlane — sat motionless in the dock.

A recent investigation by Sunday Times Daily revealed Tembe and Mondlane were the kingpins behind two of SA’s biggest kidnapping gangs.

Munsamy, the CFO of the multibillion-rand Crossmoor Transport family business empire, was snatched on May 30, 2019, just after 6PM as she was leaving her offices in Mariann Industrial Park, Pinetown.

What followed was months of being miles away from her normal life of Louis Vuitton bags, Gucci accessories, and Range Rovers:

“The occupants from [a] white BMW, three men, jumped out of the car with balaclavas and guns. I put my vehicle in reverse and looked in my review mirror and noticed [a] Mercedes with GP registration behind me. The three men started running towards my vehicle. I put my hands up, I stretched my legs forward and I began to scream. After I screamed, I heard two gunshots and I opened the door.”

In a panic, she begged the men to just take her things, many of which were Louis Vuitton and Gucci, and go, but the kidnappers had other plans:

“They tried to put me into the boot of the BMW,” she testified tearfully. “Because of my length I could not fit into the boot, but they continued to try bang the boot closed. That caused a blood clot on my leg, which is still evident until today. They moved me to the back seat of the BMW and three of the men sat on me and they took off.

“All of my jewellery was removed by the gentlemen who were sitting with me in the back seat as we were moving. After the jewellery was removed a black cable tie was put around my wrists.”

Then, she was shoved into the boot of a Mercedes, a journey in which she said she veered between consciousness and unconsciousness.

The journey ended with her being covered in a black headcloth, placed into a room, and then “the carcass of a cupboard”, which according to the indictment, was in Tembe’s residence in Jackal Creek, Johannesburg.

The windows in the house were boarded up with chipboard so that her screams would not be heard.

Two men lay next to her single bed on the floor every night of the 162-day hostage saga to keep watch over her.

A day or two in, she was able to speak to the “boss” who told her he was in contact with her family and that they were complying with his demands.

He also promised that she would be home in two days.

On April 4, she was again stuffed into the Mercedes’ boot, but this time was worse as she was really struggling to breathe.

Then, while being padlocked and chained around a wall in the house of 45 Wattle Street in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga, with enough room to move between the bed and toilet, the ransom of R154 million was negotiated.

The rest of the saga will unfold via TimesLIVE as Munsamy’s testimony continues today.

[source:timeslive]