JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The five year-old son of an Angolan mining magnate snatched at gunpoint in South Africa was released on Tuesday after his family paid a $150,000 ransom, putting a spotlight the country's violent crime rates.
Despite having one of the world's highest rates of violent crimes, police say kidnappings are unusual in South Africa, where the World Cup is due to kick off in a month.
The boy's father, Faustino Amoes, lives in Johannesburg with his family and has mining interests in Angola's diamond sector.
"Kidnappings for ransom in the country are not common, in a case like this, they knew their target was someone who could pay," Lungelo Dlamini, a provincial police spokesman said.
The family met the suspects at an agreed location in the city to exchange the cash for his son. Police are still searching for the kidnappers.
The boy's parents were away on business when four armed men held a Sunday school church congregation at gunpoint and grabbed the child. No shots were fired during the kidnapping, police said.
Some 50 people are murdered daily in Africa's biggest economy, more than in the United States, which has a population six times larger than South Africa's 50 million people.
Reuters Africa
