Trending 
South Africa’s growing extortion economy is increasingly targeting foreign-owned convenience stores, with immigrant-run “spaza” shops facing demands for protection payments, intimidation and, in some cases, deadly violence.
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 operated by Ethiopian and Somali nationals. A Somali national was also brought before the court over allegations that he collected protection fees from shopkeepers outside Stellenbosch, about 40 kilometres from Cape Town.
The cases have drawn attention to the wider problem of organised extortion, which has spread beyond small shops to businesses including construction companies and nightclubs.
Fransina Lukas, head of the community policing forum in the Western Cape, said foreign business owners are particularly vulnerable because they may be reluctant to seek help from authorities.
“The foreigners are the easier targets because they are scared, more scared than South Africans,” Lukas told AFP.
She said gangs commonly deliver letters demanding monthly payments in exchange for supposed protection. Businesses that refuse, she added, can face escalating intimidation.
“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,” Lukas said.
Several recent killings have been linked by police to extortion. In July, four people were killed in a shooting at a spaza shop in Franschhoek, including at least two foreign nationals. A 31-year-old Somali shopkeeper was also shot dead while serving customers in Cape Town’s Bonteheuwel area.
Community leader Mawande Jara said Somali-owned shops are particularly vulnerable in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, although South African business owners are also affected. He said extortionists may demand bank statements to determine how much a business can afford to pay.
Fear of retaliation has also contributed to underreporting. Jara said some victims suspect criminal gangs receive information from police officers after complaints are filed.
“If you report them to the police, then in no time these guys are aware that you’ve lodged a case against them,” he said.
The problem has also extended to other institutions. A Cape Town Islamic school and mosque was reportedly asked to pay a R3,000 “registration fee”, followed by monthly payments of R500. A representative said the centre paid the initial amount before reporting the matter to police.
Organised crime investigator Chad Thomas said some businesses turn to “heavies for hire” to settle disputes outside the courts, partly because of lengthy civil proceedings.
“This type of extortion is on the increase,” Thomas said.
Police statistics show the Western Cape recorded nearly half of the 112 protection-racket extortion cases reported nationally between April and June. The province also recorded 30 of 76 murders at spaza shops during the period and 217 gang-related killings.
Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia acknowledged the scale of the problem, saying extortion crime has “increased exponentially” in recent years.
“I don’t think that we have all the answers yet to deal with extortion,” Cachalia said, adding that the crime, once operating on a smaller scale, is now “really exploding.”
