PRETORIA - Three Chinese nationals and two Mozambicans are among fourteen kidnappers that have been arrested by the South African Police Service (SAPS) anti-kidnapping task team in Gauteng.

The fourteen are alleged to have kidnapped a Zimbabwean businessman on Sunday near his workplace.

By Monday afternoon, the anti-kidnapping task team which also includes a number of other units within the SAPS, working closely with private security partners managed to find the kidnapped victim, safe and alive at an identified address in Diepkloof, Soweto.

They also managed to trace the fourteen kidnappers at various locations, the first eight were traced to an apartment in Greenstone Park and the rest were arrested in Sandton.

Multiple speed point machines, a large sum of cash that was withdrawn from the victim’s bank account, two firearms including a firearm stolen during a house robbery in Linden in 2023, are among the items that have been seized and recovered from the kidnappers.

The SAPS has in recent weeks been able to intercept a number of kidnappers linked to syndicates who kidnap businessmen and demand large sums of ransom.

Communities are urged to continue to report suspicious activities in and around their neighbourhood, to ensure together we deal decisively with these criminals.