ID book ends Jhb hostage drama

2005-11-30 20:35

Johannesburg - A man who apparently held a woman hostage for 4½ hours in central Johannesburg on Wednesday, demanding the delivery of his identity document, was marched off to Johannesburg Central police station at 19:45 and is due to appear in court on Thursday.

The 31-year-old Soweto man, who had waited three months for his ID book, stormed into the department of home affairs offices in Market Street just after 15:00, and pointed a firearm at a 35-year-old woman home affairs employee, said police.

He grabbed her and locked her and himself into a room, at gunpoint, demanding his identity document before he would let her go.

At 17:30, the drama showed no signs of abating, with crowds of onlookers staring at the building from Market Street.

It appeared as if some employees were still in the building as a Sapa reporter saw movement there.

Home affairs spokesperson Mike Ramagoma said the man had been waiting for his ID for months.

Quick ID book 'a difficult task'

Ramagoma criticised officials who had repeated turned the man away.

"We need to meet his demands, not only because he is holding an employee hostage, but because he is entitled to his identity document.

"He has been waiting for it for three months, and we have an obligation to get it to him."

Ramagoma said police had told him the man would not let the woman go until he had the document in his hands.

He said the department was making arrangements to get the identity document to him, but it was an "impossible task" to hurry.

"It does not take a few hours to print an ID. There are processes to go through."

He said the department did not want to exacerbate "this difficult situation we are in".

"We have committed ourselves (to getting the ID to him)".

'Went about it the wrong way'

Ramagoma said officials had dealt incorrectly with the man by telling him to come back time and again for his identity document.

"They went about it in completely the wrong way. It is unacceptable that he has had to wait for three months. He should have brought it to our attention."

Ramagoma said, however, that the man's actions would result in him facing a criminal charge.

Home affairs managed eventually to comply with the man's request, and delivered the identity book to him after heavily armed police took up positions in the building.

- SAPA