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Gift of the Givers waiting to hear when freed SA hostage Gerco van Deventer will return home

Gift of the Givers waiting to hear when freed SA hostage Gerco van Deventer will return home
Gerco van Deventer is a father of three and lives with his wife, Shereen, in Swellendam, Western Cape. (Photo: Courtesy Van Deventer family).
Talia Kincaid
By Talia Kincaid
19 Dec 2023
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Six years after he was kidnapped in Libya, Gerco van Deventer was released and is in an Algerian hospital, according to Gift of the Givers. It’s unclear, however, when he’ll finally return home to South Africa.

Gift of the Givers, in a statement released on 19 December, said it was waiting for feedback on the “unconditional release” of South African paramedic Gerco van Deventer.

Van Deventer (48), the longest-held South African hostage, was released on 16 December after being held by al-Qaeda militants for more than six years.

South Africa’s State Security Agency has not provided further comment since the release, said Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers.

Sooliman confirmed that a flight had been arranged to Algiers, Algeria, where Van Deventer was to be given a medical checkup at a hospital. 

gerco van deventer Gerco van Deventer is a father of three and lives with his wife, Shereen, in Swellendam, Western Cape. (Photo: Courtesy Van Deventer family).



Intermediaries observed Van Deventer to be without injury when he was released.

He spent six years and one month in captivity under the control of the al-Qaeda militant group Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).

Van Deventer and three Turkish engineers were captured on 3 November 2017. The kidnapping took place five days after Van Deventer was contracted to work as a paramedic at a power plant in Ubari, Libya.

He was sold to JNIM in Mali in 2018, eight months after his initial capture.

Conditional release


At the request of Van Deventer’s family, Gift of the Givers initiated negotiations for his release in 2018, Sooliman told Daily Maverick.

“Gift of the Givers does not pay ransom but acts as a facilitator on behalf of distraught families wanting to bring home their loved ones,” Sooliman said. 

JNIM initially requested $3-million for Van Deventer’s release. After months of negotiating, Gift of the Givers reduced the ransom to $500,000. At the time, Van Deventer’s family and employer did not have the financial resources to fund his release.

Shereen van Deventer, Van Deventer’s wife, told Daily Maverick that she would speak to the media upon his return to South Africa. 

Van Deventer was not in contact with his wife and their three children for the duration of his time in captivity. 

Ransom negotiations stalled until January this year when an intermediary of Gift of the Givers asked that the aid organisation resume contact, Sooliman said. 

“In Ramadan of this year, we requested unconditional, ransom-free release,” he said. 

Daily Maverick has reported that JNIM made contact with Gift of the Givers on 26 May 2023. The militant organisation released the last of three proof-of-life videos wherein Van Deventer requested urgent assistance.  

This followed negotiation attempts by Gift of the Givers’ representative Mohamed Yehia Dicko. Dicko arrived in Mali on 9 April after al-Qaeda released a second proof-of-life video in March in which Van Deventer revealed that he had been shot in the arm, which had left him with limited mobility.

Gift of the Givers: rescue negotiators


Dicko had been involved in facilitating the release of South African motorcyclist Stephen McGown, who spent six years in captivity in Mali with al-Qaeda.

The Islamist militant organisation kidnapped McGown in 2011 along with Dutchman Sjaak Rijke, who was released in 2015, and Swede Johan Gustafsson, who was released by French special forces in 2017. Daily Maverick hosted a webinar with McGown in 2020 to promote his book, Six Years with Al Qaeda: The Stephen McGown Story. 

Sooliman said Gift of the Givers had additionally been instrumental in negotiating the terms of the release of South Africans Christo Bothma and Yolande and Pierre Korkie. Bothma was captured by al-Qaeda in September 2018, but was killed in captivity.

The organisation secured the unconditional release of Yolande Korkie on 10 January 2014. Pierre Korkie’s release was confirmed on 6 December 2014 but was interrupted by a botched rescue attempt initiated by US marine forces. He was killed alongside US hostage Luke Somers.

Releasing Van Deventer


“On 5 December we received a call from someone in Mauritania who said they were working on [Van Deventer’s] release,” Sooliman said.

The organisation received no further update for 12 days until a trusted intermediary informed it that Van Deventer had been released into Algeria. 

“He could not be released through Mali, apparently because of the current new war between the Mali military and the Tuaregs.” 

Gift of the Givers is waiting for confirmation that Van Deventer’s health is stable enough for arrangements to be made for his return. 

“All the videos circulated by [intermediaries] in the past year have shown that from a physical point of view, Gerco appeared to be fine,” Sooliman said. 

“To assess the psychological and emotional state is a different matter. It has been six agonising years of prayer, patience and hope. May Gerco return home soon, safely.”  

Van Deventer is expected to be debriefed in Algeria in the presence of a South African representative. 

Daily Maverick asked the Department of International Relations and Cooperation for comment, but was told by spokesperson Clayson Monyela that “the only person releasing statements at this time is Imtiaz [Sooliman]”.

This is a developing story. DM

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