A selfie posted by Lindokuhle Zungu shortly after his release.
Muizenberg’s sand-sculpture artist, known as Super Sandman, has been found after going missing for two weeks.
Lindokuhle Innocent Zungu, claims he was kidnapped while walking to the station deck taxi rank in Cape Town two weeks ago.
He made contact through social media a day after the Echo reported he had last been seen on Muizenberg Beach on Heritage Day, Thursday September 24, at 8pm, and that a missing person’s case had been opened at the Muizenberg police station.
Mr Zungu claimed his kidnappers had dropped him in KwaZulu-Natal. His Facebook page, which had mysteriously disappeared, also resurfaced on the day he was found.
Muizenberg police spokesman Captain Stephen Knapp confirmed Mr Zungu had been found in KwaZulu-Natal and that his allegations of being kidnapped were being investigated.
His wife, Nosipho, first made contact through his Facebook page on Friday October 9, at 5.52am.
She said he had gone two weeks earlier to re-deposit money that had been transferred to his account in error but had not returned home. She pleaded for any help to find him.
Then by 11.05am she made contact again, this time saying Mr Zungu had been “taken” by a dangerous gang at Cape Town station.
She claimed to have received a call from a private number and was told that the kidnappers had “taken the wrong person.”
She was told not to go to the police or he would be killed. If she complied, they would release him that afternoon.
Then at 3.02pm, Mr Zungu himself made contact through his Facebook page.
He claimed three men had asked him to get into a taxi and had then put a black cloth over his eyes.
He claimed that after a long drive he had been dropped in a quiet place. Two days later, he said, he had been brought food and told by his kidnappers that he was the wrong person.
He had been left for another two days, he said, and then driven to another place.
It had taken a few days for the “boss” to tell his kidnappers to let him go as he was not the person they wanted.
They had agreed to let him go if he did not report them and he had been dropped at an unknown destination, he said.
While some of his fans expressed relief on social media that he was safe, others were angry and said they did not believe his story.
The Echo tried to call Mr Zungu several times but only reached his voicemail.