A South African man and his two sons, one of them a police officer, appeared before a Cape Town magistrate last month over allegations that they extorted about 50 convenience stores owned by Ethiopian and Somali nationals.
Also in the dock was a Somali national accused of collecting “protection fees” from shopkeepers in the area around Stellenbosch, the winelands capital about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Cape Town.
The case has drawn attention to the targeting of foreign-owned “spaza” shops as extortion becomes increasingly entrenched across South Africa, affecting businesses ranging from construction firms to nightclubs.
Immigrant-run shops were also at the centre of a wave of xenophobic unrest earlier this year, when dozens were looted, torched or forced to close during protests calling for undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country.
“The foreigners are the easier targets because they are scared, more scared than South Africans,” Fransina Lukas, head of the community policing forum in the Western Cape province, told AFP.
Extortion gangs typically issue letters demanding monthly payments in exchange for “protection”, Lukas said.
“If the person refuses, they send the runners to rob the business, they harass the clients, until it gets to the real brutal part where they go and actually kill people,” she said.
In July, at least two foreign nationals were among four people killed in a shooting at a spaza shop in Franschhoek, a scenic town in the Western Cape.
That same month, a 31-year-old Somali man who ran a spaza shop in Cape Town’s Bonteheuwel area was shot dead while serving customers.
Police linked both incidents to extortion rather than the weeks of xenophobic violence, which was largely directed at people from other African countries. South African police said the unrest was responsible for the deaths of at least four foreign nationals.
‘Heavies for hire’
Somali-owned spaza shops are particularly vulnerable to extortion in Cape Town’s sprawling Khayelitsha township, although local business owners are also targeted, community leader Mawande Jara said.
“The fee varies, maybe based on the income,” he told AFP. “We were told that they ask for bank statements to assess how much they can get.”
The crime is widely underreported because victims fear retaliation and suspect that some police officers may be passing information to criminal gangs.
“If you report them to the police, then in no time these guys are aware that you’ve lodged a case against them,” Jara said. “So, therefore, you are vulnerable. You are putting your life at risk.”
In June, men visited a Cape Town Islamic school and mosque and demanded a “registration fee” of 3,000 rand (around $180), followed by monthly payments of R500, a representative told AFP.
“There were no physical threats made but I have been warned that these people are dangerous,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The centre may have been targeted because its imam was a foreign national, he said.
“I think it was one or two members of the community that were not happy with us being there.”
After paying the initial fee, the centre reported the matter to police.
In some cases, organised crime groups use “heavies for hire” to settle disputes outside the formal court system, said organised crime investigator Chad Thomas.
“This type of extortion is on the increase — business owners are becoming increasingly frustrated at the protracted civil court process,” he said.
The Western Cape accounted for nearly half of the 112 protection-racket extortion cases recorded nationally between April and June this year. It also recorded the highest number of murders at spaza shops, with 30 of the 76 cases nationwide, according to police statistics.
The province is also a major hotspot for gang violence, recording 217 gang-related murders during the same three-month period — by far the highest figure in the country.
“Extortion crime has increased exponentially in the last few years,” acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia told reporters in June.
“I don’t think that we have all the answers yet to deal with extortion,” he said. “It’s gone on for a long time on a small scale… (now) it’s really exploding.”
AFP
