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Posts shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook claim that a man in Goodwood was beaten up by residents after attempting to kidnap a girl, adding he was in possession of incriminating evidence such as a gun, a ledger, and children’s clothing. However, the incident pictured actually happened in 2019 in Richards Bay, a town on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal 1,400 kilometres away from the Cape Town suburb of Goodwood, and according to the police, the post makes other misleading claims. The case remains under investigation. One Facebook post , which has since been deleted, has been shared more than 100,000 times since September 3, 2019. Man in Goodwood chased after a girl as she left school! She got home, screamed and told her mother. Guys then chased the guy and beat him up, the caption reads. It adds: In the boot of his car they found a book detailing how much he would get paid for each child according to age, etc. R500,000 per child, and it must be a virgin. A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post taken on September 28, 2020 The claim has been shared far and wide and linked to different locations in the world called Goodwood, such as in the United States and in Canada . However, part of the claim mentions South Africa’s rand currency, so it appears that the Goodwood in question refers to the Cape Town suburb found in South Africa’s Western Cape province. The provincial police spokeswoman, Novela Potelwa, told AFP Fact Check that she had been asked about the matter on many occasions, but there was no record of it. I have had several enquiries pertaining to this, some with pics and video footage of a child being snatched as well as a scuffle that follows. In the Western Cape, we have no record of this, Potelwa said in a WhatsApp message. Where the incident happened A reverse image search of the picture used in one of the Facebook posts revealed that the incident actually took place in another province. We tracked the story to an article on August 5, 2019, on the front page of the Zululand Observer, a community newspaper based in the KwaZulu-Natal province. A picture of the Zululand Observer front page saved on September 11, 2020 The report, headlined Bay kidnapping scare, details how a man in a black BMW with no registration plates allegedly attempted to lure two women and then later a 16-year-old girl into his vehicle on August 2, 2019 in the town of Richards Bay. When the man allegedly accosted the girl, she fled to get help from the community, according to the report. He was then cornered and beaten up by members of the community who detained him until the police arrived, the report recounted. A screenshot of Google Maps showing the distance between Goodwood and Richards Bay taken on October 6, 2020 Richards Bay police spokeswoman Debbie Ferreira confirmed the case took place in the north coast town, not in Goodwood, and said some of the claims in the Facebook posts were misleading. For instance, she said a book found in the man’s car with various amounts of money recorded in it was not a price list for kidnapped children, as the posts claimed. The book that was allegedly in his possession had names; he is a loan shark so those were the names of people owing him money, said Ferreira. The suspect also did not have children’s clothes in the car as claimed in the misleading posts. But he did have a firearm in his car -- a toy gun, according to Ferreira, who said it was booked into evidence at the police station. Regarding the alleged pictures of children on the man’s phone, Ferreira said the investigating officer had yet to determine if they were kidnapping targets or images of his family. Matter under investigation According to Ferreira, the man was initially charged with an attempt to commit offence in terms of chapter 2 of the Prevention and Combatting of Trafficking in Persons Act , however that case was struck off the court roll. The matter remains under investigation, however, and the police are in the process of compiling new charges for prosecutors to consider bringing against the suspect, said Ferreira. While numerous unverified claims of human trafficking have been shared in South Africa, a recent arrest by multiple crime-fighting organisations in the country shows that the crime is a reality. Five suspects were arrested on September 27, 2020, for allegedly trafficking women for prostitution after police raids on three brothels. #sapsHQ Full Statement: Hawks arrest five suspects for alleged #HumanTrafficking in Kuruman and Rustenburg ME https://t.co/eAsSaGS1ZR pic.twitter.com/lfr6jsHuU7 — SA Police Service ?? (@SAPoliceService) September 28, 2020 AFP Fact Check has looked into multiple claims related to human trafficking including here and here . A 2020 report, Child Trafficking in South Africa: Exploring the Myths and Realities , warns that in South Africa, child trafficking has become a central concern for both the state and non-state agencies. Although it is claimed that child trafficking is widespread, currently very little reliable data exists to determine the nature and scope of the problem in the country. According to the US 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report , South Africa’s government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The report says these efforts included increased investigations, prosecutions and convictions of traffickers, as well as within organised criminal syndicates that facilitated the crimes. EDIT 06/10/2020: Adds an example of a post shared in Canada.
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