What started as a normal quiet day and a new month, this past Sunday (Dec 1), unexpectedly became a hype of activity in the later part of the afternoon, just past 4pm, when residents in Laudium and surrounding areas frantically went on social media, wanting to be the first to pass messages to friends and family throughout the country, of a local businessman who had just been kidnapped.
Thereafter there was virtually a live update of the latest happenings. It started with the news that Ashraf Kader, more popularly known as Baboo Kaytex, from Kaytex Belts in Sunderland Ridge, near Laudium had been kidnapped soon after leaving his business premises. Then it was said that Baboo was with his wife, Fatima Ismail, driving a white Mercedes Benz when the kidnappers pulled only Baboo out of the Merc and pushed him into their black SUV vehicle near the R55/Wierda Rd intersection, falling under the Wierdabrug Police Precint. Thereafter news followed that his wife Fatima, had apparently made contact with Baboo’s family informing them she was driving the white Merc and following the kidnappers who were heading into Heuweloord. A whole lot of friends, family members and concerned members from the community, who were already driving in the vicinity looking for the black SUV, immediately raced to Heuweloord, only to later find the white Merc S-Class, with registration ‘Kaytex’ abandoned on Koorsboom Ave, in Heuweloord. By that time an eye witness claimed that she saw an Indian male being forced into the SUV, which she recognised as a Jeep, at the same corner of the kidnapping incident. She also said that she saw a bearded man hitting the victim. As more and more cars joined in the lookout for the Jeep, many of those at home were in prayers for the safe return of both Baboo and his wife Fatima, while others were busy playing reporter, by forwarding the latest messages received about the kidnapping, to those on their group.
However, the kidnappers still managed to make a getaway, and family and friends knew in their hearts that the chances of finding Baboo and his wife the same day were diminishing as time went by.
Safely Found
It was only the following day, Monday afternoon, when police released a statement that Baboo was found safe in the township of Mamelodi, East of Pretoria, through intelligence information gathered. Later the shocking news came, when police reported that Baboo’s wife Fatima, together with three other suspects, had been arrested and that Fatima was suspected of being the kingpin in the kidnapping case. Police also said that firearms, cellphones, the Jeep SRT8 and a Hyundai believed to be used in the kidnapping were seized. A source told the Laudium Sun that when police rescued Baboo, although he had been beaten up, his first words were praise for his wife, Fatima, who he said sacrificed her life to save him.
