Free State police spokesperson, Motantsi Makhele, says preliminary investigations into the kidnapping which occurred on Monday evening at a smallholding in Abrahamskraal, led police to Khayelitsha Township on the outskirts of Bloemfontein 24 hours after the incident occurred. Makhele says here they managed to arrest two men aged 24 and 32 years old respectively. Following the two men’s arrest, authorities obtained additional information which led them to a house in the Phomolong informal settlement, which is where they found the vehicle that was used in the commission of the crime, as well as the 3-year-old boy.

Makhele says the third suspect is the owner of the vehicle in question, which is a Datsun 1400. A fourth suspect managed to flee before police got to the house. “The child was taken to the National Hospital for examination and released to the parents as he was healthy and unharmed,” says Makhele. 

The suspects will appear before the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. The motive for the abduction is unclear, but it appears the suspects were looking for the boyfriend of the young boy’s mother when the kidnapping occurred.

This comes as no new developments have been reported in the kidnapping of the four Moti brothers from Polokwane. Over a week ago, Zia, Alaan, Zayyad, and Zidan, who are between the ages of six and fifteen, were being driven to school when a group of armed men kidnapped the boys from the BMW they were travelling in, leaving their driver behind. The children’s cellphones were dumped in an open field, where authorities later found them.

OFM News