ZA/Joburg resident here - he was actually located after he SMS'd his girlfriend, and the cops used his mobile phone signal to locate him. It was widely tweeted, but from what I gather it had very little to do with the actual recovery of the gent in question.

He'd be dead before he gets to a 112 operator. The local crooks have a very low tolerance for bold heroic stuff like that.

Also, the local 911 equivalent is sometimes simply swamped with calls so its better to get the message out there & have someone else phone it in.

Sadly more & more reliance is being placed on stuff like this (community patrols, private security, gated communities etc) because the police simply isn't coping.

Glad that it worked out fine in this case.

The flying squad is usually really quick to respond, but it worked out in the end...

Possibly afraid of being heard by the hijackers in the car?