Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said there was a “wave of extortion and other related crime” in some parts of the country, with Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape accounting for 73 per cent of reported crimes. (Photo: Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
South Africa must declare war on the construction and extortion mafias who use violence to hold our citizens and businessmen hostage to demand cash in exchange for contracts and personal protection.
This was a clear agreement across all political parties during a parliamentary debate on the construction mafia and rampant extortion, after Police Minister Senzo Mchunu outlined an anti-criminal action plan for the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Mchunu said there was a “wave of extortion and other related crime” in some parts of the country, with Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape accounting for 73 per cent of all reported crime.
“Blackmail [has] “It has manifested itself over time and has now reached a level where every community in our country outside the four provinces is feeling very angry, bitter and upset,” Mchunu said.
“The pain runs deep. The mood expressed in communities across the country mirrors the recent unanimous statement in Parliament against these crimes. The current socio-economic conditions are driving down crime rates in the country and require urgent address by Parliament and the Executive.”
He said the tactics of extortionists were well known: “They are usually armed, they operate in groups and they sow fear and chaos. It is this fear that often leads to relative silence and low reporting in communities.”
Mchunu said police were “working hard” to tackle such crimes every day, and sources said they had recently clashed with robbers in Milnerton, Cape Town, where four suspects were killed and four injured in a shootout with police, with two fleeing the scene.
He said Eastern Cape police were focusing operations in Mthatha and Nelson Mandela Bay to combat extortion, illegal occupation of buildings and livestock theft.
“Shocking incidents of church services, funerals and other family related events being disrupted by blackmailers displaying the lowest moral standards,” he said.
Police in Mpumalanga have arrested three people on suspicion of extortion, and in Gauteng, three people have been arrested on suspicion of extortion in Bronkhorstspruit, with police aware of further cases in Soweto.
“In the Free State, extortionists also target pensioners. In general, there is a lot more extortion going on in the community than meets the eye. We need to increase our intelligence gathering capacity. Communities are reporting but it's not enough so we have to find the information ourselves when it comes to profiling these criminals,” Makunu said.
He said his department and the South African Police Service had signed an operational plan with the City of Cape Town to tackle crime, which included collaboration with the Community Policing Forum, the city police and private security companies. This collaboration would help in terms of resources.
His department is due to meet with government leaders in Gauteng on Thursday and in KwaZulu-Natal later this month.
“We are also holding a series of meetings with the Department of State and sister ministries on crime-fighting collaboration in line with the National Integrated Crime Prevention Strategy,” Mchunu said.
The MPs called on ministers to take a tough stance against extortion, saying it was putting people's lives at risk, and expressed concern that in some cases police were contributing to it, leaving people “truly powerless”.
Democratic Alliance MP Ian Cameron said extortion was a “fast-growing threat affecting all levels of society – from large corporations to small town businesses and even schools”.
“This is a deep-rooted problem that is undermining economic stability and undermining the social fabric of every region of our country, becoming a national crisis,” he added.
Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi alleged that some police officers collaborate with extortionists and that is why they are unable to identify suspects.
“The reason the police are claiming ignorance is because they are closely aligned with the police, because corrective services are closely aligned,” he said.
Mmusi Maimane, a member of parliament from Build One South Africa, said people were living in fear and “sometimes they call the police and sometimes they don't come, and sometimes they come and demand bribes.”
“I want to tell you this: We can't afford to continue this discussion. What we have to do here today is to declare war on crime,” he said.