Several police officers are under investigation for alleged involvement in township extortion rackets in the Western Cape.
Disciplinary action is under way against two officers, said Western Cape police spokesperson Brig Novella Potelwa, adding: “Investigations into the extortion phenomenon also focus on the internal SAPS environment.”
She said those inquiries had resulted in the arrest last November of a 26-year-old Stellenbosch police officer charged with murder and extortion after a Somali shopkeeper was killed for allegedly failing to pay protection money.
Melkama Kassa was shot dead at his Kayamandi shop in February after he and his SA wife tried to open several cases alleging police officers were demanding monthly protection payments.
Potelwa would not indicate the scale of police officers’ suspected involvement in extortion rackets, but sources with knowledge of the investigation said several officers were under investigation.
However, sources allege the officer charged with murder – who cannot be named until he has pleaded – has been released on bail, has not been suspended and is carrying a firearm, earning his full salary and living at police barracks.
Late last year, a Kleinvlei police constable shot a video while driving a car alongside two men who have been linked to extortion activities by sources investigating a November massacre at the headquarters of the Boko Haram extortion gang in Gugulethu that claimed eight lives.
The Western Cape SAPS has prioritised incidents of extortion and kidnapping through the appointment of specialist detectives to undertake investigations.
Potelwa said police were investigating “a number of cases against” the officer, but she could not divulge details about the charges or allegations “out of respect for the process”.
She added: “In as far as the two SAPS members [in Stellenbosch and Kleinvlei] cited in your enquiry, two separate internal disciplinary processes were instituted and are yet to be finalised.
“The Western Cape SAPS has prioritised incidents of extortions and kidnappings through the appointment of specialist detectives to undertake investigations. Armed with crucial intelligence, the provincial organised crime investigators are hard at work probing the reported cases.”
It also emerged that the constable was arrested in connection with a murder in Mfuleni in 2017, but sources said the witnesses subsequently withdrew their cooperation in the case.
Potelwa said: “It is worth noting the SAPS will never divulge whether other SAPS members are being investigated for extortion or other serious crimes until it is time to charge those involved.”
A source familiar with the Kassa case said the shopkeeper went to the police station “every day” to report extortion attempts, but no one followed up. “They should have opened disciplinary cases based on those allegations, but no one did anything,” said the source.
“The couple rented property to set up their shop from the mother [of the officer charged with Kassa’s murder]. So she knew him personally. To me that’s very shocking.”
A battle for control of extortion rackets in townships in and around Cape Town erupted in October after Boko Haram leader Ayanda “Borhey” Mtila was shot during a cash-in-transit heist in Bishop Lavis on October 13.
Mtila’s death in hospital the following day gave gangs such as the Guptas an opportunity to move in, leading to the massacre less than three weeks later.
Extortion-related murders have not abated since then, and police minister Bheki Cele said a shooting that claimed six lives on January 30, followed by a separate incident in which two men died, were also linked to the rackets.
“Both cases are being investigated, and we hope that in no time we will find out who did what and why, but we think the shootings are linked to extortion as they are fighting over turf,” Cele recently said at the Khayelitsha police station.
Detectives investigating the murder of former Stellenbosch deputy mayor Cameron Mcako, who was gunned down outside his Kayamandi tavern in November 2019, have discovered that he was a leading figure in a powerful and feared extortion syndicate.
Mcako was himself a former Kayamandi police officer.
As the extortionists continue their bloody turf war, the owners of small businesses say they are losing count of the amount of money they have handed over for protection.
A Kayamandi barber says even when his business dried up during the Covid-19 lockdown, extortionists continued demanding their monthly payment of R100 to protect his container shop.
“When I came here a few years ago, criminals used to break into my barber shop, steal and ransack it. I lost valuables worth thousands of rand,” said the barber.
“I was at my wits’ end when one day well-known criminals rocked up and told me that I should start paying R100 protection fee monthly and I would be safe. I complied out of fear.
“Initially, I thought that only criminals were behind this, but I heard that prominent people and politicians in the community were also involved in the extortion. I have not had problem even since I started paying.
“But I live in the fear that a rival group of ruthless extortionists might come up and increase the protection fee or cause havoc for foreign-owned businesses.”
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