About 3 000 people gathered in Cape Town yesterday, calling on the release of kidnapped Gerco van Deventer during a mass iftar.
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The group started the fast-breaking meal with around 1 500 multi-faith worshippers in Monarch Street, Pelican Park, and the group quickly swelled. As per Islamic teaching, a mass iftar is a meritorious and blessed occasion in Ramadan, and the sharing of meals with the less fortunate is emphasised. Thirteen 100-litre pots of food were used to feed the crowd, and residents also brought boxes of chips, cakes, and beverages.
The group stood in silent prayer before eating, holding up placards with the words ‘Please have mercy and free our brother’, and ‘Free! Free!’.
It was hosted by Zaibuneesa Rashid, Pelican Park community leader and chief executive officer of the Bienasriellaahi Feeding scheme, and humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers (GOTG) in hopes that Van Deventer’s abductors would see how much support he has for his release.
‘We put the call out that we would like to have as many people show up for this year’s initiative as the kidnapping of our fellow citizen is something that is of great concern and brings about lots of sadness, especially for his family who haven’t seen him in years,’ says Rashid. Several videos were taken of the event to be sent to the kidnappers by GOTG.
Van Deventer, a South African national from Swellendam, was abducted from Libya in 2017 after he moved from Afghanistan in hopes of a safer working environment. News24 reports that he was subsequently sold to an Al-Qaeda group in Mali, who is requesting a $500 000 – about R9 million – ransom. He was on his way to the Awbari power plant in Libya, where he worked as an on-site medical practitioner, when he was kidnapped alongside three Turkish men. The latter were however released seven months later.
A video was recently shared on social media, in which Van Deventer says that he is the only South African being held by a splinter Al-Qaeda group in Mali.
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Earlier this month, GOTG sent its hostage negotiator to Mali to assist in arranging the safe release of Van Deventer. As Ramadan is known as the month of mercy, GOTG called on Al-Qaeda to release him on compassionate grounds.
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Gift of the Givers return to SA after assisting with rescue efforts in Türkiye
Picture: @Mzahem_Alsaloum / Twitter