Police officers from the provincial task team and Tzaneen tracking team have launched a manhunt for the suspects using social media to lure job seekers and promising them non-existent jobs, robbing them, and going as far as humiliating them to get money from them.
Three job seekers were lured to Tzaneen, using social media, where they were kidnapped, robbed, and stripped naked for no reason. The group of robbers ordered the three desperate job seekers to strip naked, took pictures and sent them to the family of one of the victims and demanded money for their release.
“The three victims, a male person aged 27 and two women aged 21 and 33 respectively, allegedly responded to an advert on Facebook about employment in Tzaneen. The unsuspecting victims boarded taxis from Jane Furse, Groblersdal and Thohoyandou respectively, after they were individually directed by the suspects through WhatsApp to a certain spot in Tzaneen for job opportunities,” said Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo, the police spokesperson.
The four suspects waited for the victims at a filling station in Tzaneen, once they arrived, they boarded a taxi towards Bolobedu with the victims.
“They then disembarked along the way and took the victims to a secluded bushy area where they allegedly robbed them of their cellphones, money and clothes contained in a bag. They then ordered them to strip naked, took pictures and sent them to the family of one of the victims and demanded money for their release,” Mojapelo said.
“The suspects allegedly ordered the male victim to rape one of the women. The victims were found by a motorist along the road hitch-hiking and took them to Tzaneen police station at about 11am.”
Lieutenant-General Thembi Hadebe, the provincial commissioner of police has warned job seekers to “be extra careful when seeking employment and be wary of advertisements on social media platform.”
A case of rape, kidnapping and robbery was opened at the Tzaneen police station.
Source: IOL, News24, African News Agency, Opera News, image from IOL: Bongiwe Mchunu