Investigators have linked a seventh man to a syndicate involved in the 2021 ransom kidnappings of two foreign nationals in Paarl and Cape Town.

Xolani Jiyose, who stands accused of kidnapping two Thai nationals, one of whom he is accused of killing, in Mowbray in December last year joined six people accused of abducting a Chinese and a Nepalese national in two separate kidnappings in early 2021.

Jiyose and co-accused Wayne Jones, Mosiuwa Mokone, Samuel Ramatlefe, Mzwandile Kumalo, Siyabonga Gqamana and Lunga Bornside allegedly kidnapped a Chinese woman from the parkade of the Pick n Pay supermarket on Strand Street in the Cape Town CBD on February 16 2021.

They then allegedly robbed her of her belongings, including her credit card, which they used to make transactions to the value of R500,000. 

According to a state charge sheet the men also allegedly beat the woman with fists, shoved her head into a bucket of chillies, pepper sprayed her in the face and forced their fingers down her throat to make her gag.

According to the state, they attempted to extort a R5m ransom from her husband while assaulting her and threatening to gang rape her. 

Her husband eventually paid R227,000 for her release on February 22 near Monte Vista. 

The syndicate would allegedly strike again, this time in Mbekweni, a township near Paarl. 

According to the state on March 14 2021, the accused kidnapped a Nepalese man from the shop he worked at in Midway Mall, Mbekweni.

The victim was also assaulted and threatened with sexual assault if he and his employer, from whom they demanded a ransom of R4m in cash, did not co-operate with them.

The victim’s employer paid the ransom, but it would also be the undoing of the syndicate as six of the accused were arrested on the same day.

Mokone, Ramatlefe and Gqamana were granted bail by the Khayelitsha priority crimes court during their appearance on Thursday.

Investigators from a joint SAPS and Hawks team set up in the Western Cape to work alongside prosecutors from the director for public prosecutions have tightened the net around kidnapping syndicates, with Jiyose's linkage to the two abductions bringing to four the number of syndicates with alleged members behind bars since the team started investigating kidnappings for ransom in October last year.

In the Wynberg magistrate’s court on Thursday, alleged members of a syndicate behind the abduction of an eight-year-old girl in Cape Town in November last year had their bail bid postponed after some of the accused failed to come up with the funds to pay their lawyers. 

Their case was postponed to March 23. 

The rest of the accused will remain behind bars until their next appearance on April 6.

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