Thulisile Mapongwana
The formal bail application for three men accused of kidnapping nine-year-old Emaan Fatima Ghumman in East London was postponed in the city's Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
The delay was due to one of the defense attorneys requesting additional time to consult with their client.
The suspects face charges related to the abduction of Ghumman, who was taken outside Dreamland Primary School in Buffalo Flats and held for nine days before being released near the Inyibiba police station in Mdantsane.
The court ordered that the identity of the accused not be exposed, as more arrests are imminent.
All three suspects appear to be foreign nationals, and Zaheer Iqbal, General Secretary of the Pakistan Social Security Association in East London, has raised concerns over the arrest of one of the accused, a 19-year-old Pakistani national.
"We believe that he's innocent because what he told us is that somebody came to his shop and used his phone. After that, his phone was hacked, and it was then used in connection with the case," said Iqbal.
He claims that while authorities have linked the suspect’s phone to WhatsApp messages related to the kidnapping, the context of those messages remains unclear.
"We don't know how serious those messages were or how they link to the case. This is a young man, new to South Africa. We believe he is not capable of something like this."
Iqbal also highlighted other ongoing kidnapping cases involving foreign nationals in the Eastern Cape, expressing concern over the police's handling of investigations.
"There’s a case in Dimbaza where an elderly man, around 70 years old, was kidnapped the same day Emaan was released. It's been two weeks, and we have heard nothing. Another man in Graaff-Reinet has been held for over 20 days, with kidnappers demanding ransom in Mozambique," he said.
Iqbal said the association believes that there is a link between Mozambique and South African criminals. He further alleged that law enforcement has been slow to act despite receiving crucial evidence from community members.
"We have provided police with evidence and phone numbers linked to the kidnappers, yet they have been unable to trace them. However, they managed to track a WhatsApp message, despite WhatsApp being end-to-end encrypted. That is very strange to us."
Iqbal emphasized that criminal activity should not be generalized to an entire community amid allegations that foreign nationals are behind kidnappings.
"Even the ministers passed a statement that the foreigners are behind these kidnappings, which is not true all the time. Every community has got criminals, and the criminal does not have any country, language, or religion. Criminals are criminals.
We condemn those people. In Emaan Fatima’s case, we gave plenty of evidence to police and they failed to trace those, at the end of the day we had to pay the ransom for Emaan Fatima as well.” Iqbal concluded.
The Hawks say the three suspects are between 20 and 67 years old and will remain in custody until their next court appearance on 27 February.
