POLICE were yesterday still searching for three foreigners, thought to be British tourists, who were abducted en route to their hotel shortly after they landed at Jan Smuts Airport on Thursday evening.
The hijacked minibus in which they were travelling was found before noon. It had been abandoned in Alexandra, a black township on the northern boundary of Johannesburg. The sliding door was open, a wheel was missing and the passengers' luggage gone.
The men had been picked up on arrival from Cape Town by a tourist company's minibus; the vehicle was stopped by five armed men under a bridge as it took an off ramp from the motorway near Alexandra. The driver Mr Peter Makeyane, told police he stopped when he saw a flashing light, only to be accosted by five armed men, who pushed him aside, climbed into the vehicle and drove off towards Alexandra. Mr Makeyane said the men he collected spoke good English and he believed they were British.
According to British consular officials, the three men booked their trip through a British company.
The abduction came as police, backed by troops, keep a wary eye on threatened violence in and around Cape Town. The metropolis had witnessed a sensational series of events earlier in the week involving a Muslim based vigilante movement, People Against Gangsterism And Drugs (Pagad). The events included a shootout at the home of a gang leader, Rashaad Staggie, who was gunned down in front of television cameras, doused with petrol and set alight; a march through the streets of Athlone, near Cape Town, by Pagad zealots, many of whom openly carried firearms in defiance of the law; the murder of a Muslim taxi driver, Mr Frankie Ryklief, in what was believed to be a revenge attack by Rashaad Staggie supporters after his twin brother and co leader of the Hard Livings gang, Rashied Staggie, swore vengeance.
The Minister for Safety and Security, Mr Sydney Mufamadi, called for military assistance amid fears that mosques and Muslim schools might be targeted in revenge attacks. A Pagad leader, Muhammed Eli Parker, had warned that attacks on Muslim property or lives would result in a holy war of Jihad.
The sudden public appearance on television screens of Kaffiyehclad zealots chanting "Allan Akbar" (God is Great) has triggered speculation that Pagad might be part of the worldwide Muslim fundamentalist movement with its far reaching politico religious agenda. Pagad's origins, however, appear to more mundane: the exasperation of ordinary citizens, many of whom happen to be Muslims, at the perceived inability of the police service to halt increasing crime.