A daytime shopping trip turned into a terrifying ordeal after an unidentified man attempted to snatch a five-year-old girl at Vangate Mall on Saturday morning, reports Cape {town} Etc.
According to police spokesperson Captain Frederick Van Wyk, the attempted kidnapping unfolded at around 10:30am, while the child’s mother was walking hand-in-hand with her daughter.
‘A mom was walking with her 5-year-old daughter at a shopping mall in Athlone, holding her hand, when an unidentified male came and tried to pull the child away from her,’ confirmed Van Wyk.
‘A tug of war ensued when the dad of the child saw this and intervened.’
Van Wyk added that the 30-year-old male was subsequently arrested and was under police guard at a nearby hospital for medical treatment. The parents and child received counselling at Athlone Victim Support room, and a case of attempted kidnapping was opened.
Videos of the suspect being loaded into the police van have been circulating across social media platforms, as well as another male, believed to also be connected to the incident, being loaded into the boot of a separate police vehicle.
In the first video, community members who had gathered near the police van can be seen banging on the vehicle and shouting threats and profanities in a collective expression of anger and disgust.
Suspects arrested after allegedly attempting to kidnap a 6-year-old at the Vangate Mall in Cape
Town.#CrimeWatch pic.twitter.com/MqYhe0asSo— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) December 14, 2025
While social media reports indicate that the little girl is six years old, police confirmed that the she is five.
The attempted kidnapping follows shortly after the findings of the Africa Organised Crime Index 2025, an annual report published by the UE-funded ENACT initiative, revealed that South Africa is the second most crime-affected country in Africa.
Overall, the country scored 7.43 out of 10 on criminality, placing it second among 54 African nations and first in Southern Africa, as per BusinessTech.
The report further highlighted that South Africa’s criminal markets remain deeply entrenched, with human trafficking, kidnapping and extortion identified as persistent threats driven by well-organised networks.
According to the index, South Africa scored 6 out of 10 for human trafficking, a level the index describes as ‘significant and entrenched’, with criminal groups exploiting vulnerabilities for forced labour, sexual exploitation and illicit migration routes.
Kidnapping for ransom and criminal intimidation also forms part of the country’s broader criminal operations. The index noted that kidnapping networks – often linked to syndicates operating in major metros – continue to pose a high risk to civilians, with South Africa scoring 6.50 out of 10 for the ‘criminality of violence and coercion’ category.
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Picture: Screenshot from video
