SAPS dragging its feet on Cape extortion racket boom
9 November 2020
Combatting extortion and racketeering in Greater Cape Town has become critical as gangsters feel immune from the criminal justice system and what seems to be an unmotivated South African Police Service.
Extorting protection money from small businesses in swathes of the City has become so lucrative, so easy, and its consequences so remote, that criminals have expanded their threats to ordinary people with jobs.
Figures kept by the City of Cape Town show a dramatic rise in what amounts to a form of urban terrorism. Cases of extortion have expanded beyond businesses in the central business district to areas such as Khayelitsha, Bloekombos, Wallacedene, and Gugulethu.
There is evidence of a growing reign of terror. Gangsters have taken to holding public and private transport to ransom. Some are now demanding protection money from construction sites. Protection money is being extorted from foreign-owned businesses and even backyard dwellers who have jobs.