Aristidis, 41 and Rita Kotsis 33.They have been together 17 yrs.
Had lived in Benoni near Guateng (Johannesburg) most of their lives. Rita is 3rd generation South African, and Ari is 1st gen South African.Ari S/A born but family are Greek orthodox from Greece.
They got married in 2001 26th Oct they then moved in together in Kessington.
They left in 2002 due to endless thefts and lived with in laws in Brackpan for a year.
They then looked at buying a house in Benoni, Ari was an accountant and Rita was looking after their children.
After they had purchased their home they found out that the previous owners had all been executed with the exception of the daughter.
Despite this though life was good, Ari was still running his accountancy business and was also in the mobile phone,properties and diamond business selling rough diamonds to cut.
They were living a fairly good life and were earning well, living a standard South African life.
Apartheid had been abolished in 1994 with Nelson Mandella's rise to prime minister of the A.N.C party, and 8 yrs later Thabo Mbecki took over. Thabo a radicalist introduced new laws about Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B.B.B.E.E) which meant that white owned businesses had to have black partners and the black partners had to be GIVEN 26% of the company shares, as a direct result large companies left South Africa moving their head quarters to places like London only leaving subsidiary branches in S/A in order to avoid giving away their shares, companies like De beers diamonds, Investec, Sasol,Anglo American and Old Mutual.
The economy of South Africa was suffering, and affirmative action( businesses had to be 93%black to better represent the African populace) meant that whites were loosing jobs, and the immigration of white South Africans to the U.K was a common place thing.
Meanwhile in 2006/7 Ari and Rita were doing ok, life was still good and Ari was bringing in enough money to provide for his family, however life did get bad.
In the yr of 2006/7 (he is unsure which) Ari and his business partner Willi (white,German friend) had to travel to Kimberly from Johannesburg, this was a 4 hour trip, to go and make a deal with some diamond dealers. They packed the boot with the money as diamond dealers don't deal with card, and fueled up and left. When they arrived they went to the house at the mine where the deal was due to take place. After a few minutes police officers blasted in shouting it wasn't a legal deal, Ari was telling them he had a licence to deal, the guys they were dealing with were forced into a corner(3 black men)and Ari was taken out to his car to fetch the money whilst his partner was being beaten in the house by the other "officers" once inside the officers separated Ari and Willi into 2 rooms and beat them to within an inch of their lives interrogating them about the deal and the money, after 4 hours they took Ari and said he was going with them to a local village to empty his bank accounts and give the "officers" all of his money, it become clear by this point that they were fake police men and he was being kidnapped held to ransom.
They took Ari's car leaving his partner at the house with officers and the dealers. Once they they arrived at the bank Ari held at gunpoint was made to go into the bank and start first emptying his private account, when the teller asked him to sign the slip he wrote help on the dotted line.
The teller then asked to speak to him privately stating there was a problem with his account so that the gunman wouldn't get suspicious. Once he was the private room where the gunman couldn't follow he explained his predicament to the teller, explaining that they were due to travel to 2 other banks to empty his business accounts. She told him she would inform the banks and the police.
Leaving the bank with the entire contents of his private account, he and the gunmen travelled to the next bank. Luckily the bank had been informed and managed to stall Ari, upon which the police turned up and arrested everyone including Ari, who resisted, being unsure of the validity of the police credentials.
After 2 more days at the station the ordeal was over having only lost a small percentage of money due to an escaped gunman. However mentally Ari was scarred, the first week after the ordeal Ari was in chronic pain due to being smashed in the head with a butt of a gun. After the first week Ari had lost interest in work and had become nervous and depressed.
Unable to continue with work for almost a year due to the psychological impact of the kidnapping, this resulted in Rita and Ari selling everything and they moved back in with Ari's parents, Rita was working in the catering business and Ari had manged to find work in a school, however the school was robbed several times with one occasion Ari in the building, Rita was mugged on the way to the bank, then their daughter was being threatened.
They decided enough was enough. Applying for visas to the U.K for the children and Rita,Ari has a E.U passport, they started selling what they had left, packed up, wrote off debts they were owed, just 2 days before they left the visas arrived and they travelled to the U.K at the end of 2008.
Rita is still in her job, whilst Ari has since moved to a company in London as an accountant. They and their children are happy and safe now. Ari told me that he is sure that had they not left S/A they would all or some be either dead or raped and he is thankful to the U.K and has no intention of ever returning to South Africa, the place he called home for so many years.
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