Businesses in townships and small towns are struggling as extortion gangs intimate and demand protections fees from them. This week police ministry deployed teams of investigators to the Eastern Cape to probe the violence and intimidation, Lindile Sifile and Herman Moloi report.
At least 772 people alleged to be extortionists across the country have been arrested in the last five years, with 58 of them successfully convicted.
Police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said 93 of these cases are still under investigation.
“SAPS [South African Police Service] is making inroads in dealing decisively with gangs demanding extortion fees from businesses but concedes that more needs to be done. Problematic provinces have been identified where extortionists operate – Western, Eastern and Northern Cape, Free State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga,” she said.
Gauteng police commissioner Maj-Gen Tommy Mthombeni said they have appointed a formidable team to fight against extortion in the province. “We are linking up with the metro police and the security industry.
He said they also work with Business Against Crime SA (BAC) and have regular meetings where they inform police about extortion trends and the police deploy resources accordingly.
He further said they have increased police investigation capacity that falls under the category of organised crime.
Roe Viljoen, project manager from BAC, said the community needs to work together with businesses owners to defeat crime.
You don't have to report it at your local police station because there is a chance that someone in your community who has power is part of this crime syndicate
— Roe Viljoen, project manager from BAC
“We don't stop anyone from giving us information and from our side, we will verify the information with our sources before we call on law enforcement. We take information from everyone. We don't have people who work for us directly, but we have people that we know in the sector who will help us with information. We also work with neighbourhood watches and CPF [Community Police Forum],” he said.
Viljoen said they deal with about 90 cases of suspected business extortion annually, which they refer to police. He further advised business owners to report incidents of suspected extortion to police.
“You don't have to report it at your local police station because there is a chance that someone in your community who has power is part of this crime syndicate. So, you can report it to any police and if there is any difficulty in opening the case then escalate it to us so that we can follow up as we have contacts of detectives investigating this kind of crime,” he said. - moloih@sowetan.co.za
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