Malaysian police has made a public appeal for help to find a senior South African diplomat who has been reported missing in that country, and refused to rule out the possibility he had been kidnapped.
Deputy High Commissioner Nicky Scholtz (54) was last seen on Sunday night in his hotel room in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian police and South African officials said.
South African officials lodged a missing persons report for Scholtz, whose full name is Cornelius van Niekerk Scholtz, with Malaysian police on Wednesday after their own investigations drew a blank, the foreign affairs ministry said.
Police called a news conference on Saturday to distribute photographs of Scholtz and make their appeal for information, but declined to give details of the case.
”We seek the help of any members of the public who have information about Mr Scholtz to contact the police,” said Hadi Ho Abdullah, police chief at the downtown Dang Wangi district.
Asked whether police believe Scholtz is still in Malaysia, Hadi said, ”We are investigating all angles. At this time, we don’t want to speculate.”
Other police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Scholtz was staying at the luxury downtown hotel, the Nikko, when he disappeared. They refused to say whether they were treating the case as a kidnap.
Hadi also declined to say if police had boosted security for other foreign diplomats in Malaysia.
At the news conference, High Commissioner Abraham Sokhaya Nkomo said he was satisfied with the investigation and was confident the police would ”proceed with the utmost professional skill to try to unravel this matter”.
He also declined to elaborate on the case.
”In view of the pending investigations, it is not useful for us to go into very long details,” he told reporters. ”We ask to media to bear with us because there are certain constraints.”
Scholtz was representing South Africa at a conference on African development that was being held at the hotel at the time of his disappearance.
Malaysia was a new posting for Scholtz, who arrived on April 20. Officials said he was single. – Sapa-AP