EXPRESS KIDNAPPINGS: Researcher Steven Gruzd met alleged killers at Airbnb, court hears, as Grindr link emerges

Almost seven months after the murder of senior researcher Steven Gruzd, court details indicate he met his assailants at an Airbnb in Corlett Gardens, Johannesburg, which they had booked and paid for, and where the murder allegedly took place. 

Gruzd (53) was the head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). He was reported missing on Friday, 27 March, after he had left to attend a meeting in Corlett Gardens.

His body was found the following day at George Goch Hostel in Jeppestown, 20km away. A postmortem determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the neck.

Five men were arrested on the day Gruzd’s body was found. Thabiso Ngcongco, Nkosenhle Zuma, Siyanda Mzolo, Buhle Zuma, and Nsikelelo Njali are facing charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, kidnapping, murder, and defeating the ends of justice. They have all pleaded not guilty. 

On Friday, 16 October, at the Johannesburg Central Magistrates’ Court, Lieutenant Colonel Johan Potgieter testified that the suspects’ fingerprints were found at the murder scene and inside a white Toyota Corolla driven by the assailants.

The police also found bloodstained linen from the murder scene and a rope with Gruzd’s DNA in the car. CCTV evidence showed the suspects and Gruzd entering the premises separately. 

The case has been investigated as a suspected “express kidnapping”. This refers to a crime in which victims are held against their will while being forced by their assailants to withdraw cash from multiple ATMs and send cash transfers to other accounts.

These incidents are the main driver of kidnappings in Gauteng, which records the highest kidnapping cases nationally. 

The circumstances behind the death revealed in police evidence and through a Daily Maverick investigation point to an alarming trend in express kidnappings, about which LGBT+ activists have been raising the alarm since 2023. 

The SA Police Service did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Possible links to online gangs

The police have not officially established how the accused and Gruzd knew each other, and they do not appear to have had an established relationship. 

A Johannesburg resident, who requested anonymity, told Daily Maverick that he had matched with Gruzd on Grindr, a dating app for men who have sex with men. He confirmed that Gruzd, whom he also knew outside of the app, was “very active” on the site and regularly confided in him.

This detail, along with the circumstances of his murder, points to the possible involvement of criminal syndicates that create fake accounts on Grindr to lure men who have sex with men to secluded locations for robbery and extortion.

Associates of Gruzd have described him as a “devoted family man” to his wife and children. Daily Maverick was not able to reach his family for comment.

‘Grindr gangs’ documented since 2023

The online targeting of men who have sex with men is often linked to “Grindr gangs”. However, the term describes the tactic rather than a single, interconnected syndicate. Such gangs have been documented in Nelson Mandela Bay, Durban and Cape Town. 

In 2023, seven men targeted a Wits University student on Grindr before kidnapping and torturing him, demanding a R30,000 ransom from his family. Police rescued the student from Denver Men’s Hostel after arresting one of the captors while he attempted to withdraw the ransom money.

At the time, SAPS spokesperson Athlenda Mathe stated that the suspects were linked to at least 85 similar cases. 

This year, at least two similar incidents in Gauteng were reported. In early March, Mamba Online reported that a 43-year-old man was ambushed in a guesthouse by five men after he had agreed to meet a Grindr match.

His assailants forced him to hand over his phone, transferred money out of his bank account, tied him up, and threatened to publish explicit photos of him on social media if he “did anything stupid”. 

In April, veteran emergency services worker Braam Kruger was murdered after being lured to a guesthouse in Brooklyn, Pretoria, by a Grindr match. After he arrived, he was ambushed by three men, robbed and murdered.

The Johannesburg resident who knew Gruzd told Daily Maverick that he knew of at least one other incident where a man in a relationship with a woman went to meet a Grindr match only to be ambushed at gunpoint.

Details of such attacks are widely shared through informal community whisper networks, prompting some men to carry firearms for protection during initial in-person meetups with people they match with on the app.

He added that Grindr automatically erases message history for both users when one account blocks another – a feature that can further complicate criminal investigations.

Grindr had not responded to Daily Maverick’s questions by the time of publication.

Cases underreported due to stigma

Sibonelo Ncanana-Trower, the co-chair of the National Task Team on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sex Characteristics Matters, confirmed a rise in “Grindr gang” incidents, particularly in Gauteng and Cape Town. He noted, however, that the true scale of the problem is probably underreported due to stigma and fear of being outed.

“Our significant concern is that the reported cases likely represent only a fraction of what is actually occurring. Many individuals are extremely fearful of opening cases with the police due to the risk of further harm, secondary victimisation, or being outed, especially in contexts where stigma and discrimination remain pervasive,” he said.

Sextortion on the increase

Private investigator Mike Bolhuis said he had observed a marked increase in sextortion cases across various dating platforms in recent months. In cases handled by his team, offenders routinely set up fraudulent, anonymous profiles to engage and exploit potential victims.

Perpetrators either coerce victims into sending explicit photos to use for blackmail, or lure them to private locations where they are ambushed, held captive, and extorted for money. In physical attacks, the criminals also take explicit photos of the victims, threatening to post them online if they contact the police – and frequently reselling them on the black market.

Bolhuis urged those who use dating sites to verify the identity of the person they have matched with before meeting in person by asking for full names and contact information.

“Because it’s a social media platform, you go through all the necessary other available platforms to find [their profiles]. The moment the person says he’s from overseas, it's a red flag,” he warned. 

“When they start asking for money, it’s a red flag. If they don’t want to do a video call, it’s a problem. If they say, ‘Yeah, but I’m in the bath now, I don’t have any clothes,’ and you say, ‘I’ll hold on, put some clothes on.’ You know they come with stories,” he said. DM