MPs tear into police minister over rise in extortion

Disgruntled MPs took turns taking pot shots at police minister Senzo Mchunu on Tuesday, saying he had no concrete strategy to deal with widespread extortion syndicates that had penetrated every level of SA. 

They accused the police of being in cahoots with extortionists, who were sowing fear, chaos and terror in communities and businesses. 

Mchunu was briefing the National Assembly on measures the police had taken to deal with the scourge, in particular in Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. 

Recent incidents include the murder of a school principal in KwaBhaca in the Eastern Cape last week by a gunman allegedly demanding payment. In a separate incident, thugs stormed the home of a nurse from the Efata School for the Blind in Mthatha and demanded payment of R50,000. The nurse refused and was robbed of his phone, laptop and television.

In the Western Cape, an informal trader from Kraaifontein was shot dead a week ago in a suspected extortion-related murder.

Road Accident Fund recipients have not been spared by the criminal rings. Crime-hit petrol stations and doctors’ rooms have closed shop in Mthatha.

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has lamented that his province has been without a head of crime intelligence for almost a year, which has hampered efforts to deal effectively with the economic sabotage caused by protection fee syndicates.

Mabuyane said that apart from deploying the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), the province needed an intelligence-driven programme to combat syndicates. 

On Tuesday, Mchunu confirmed that extortion was deep rooted and emphasised this required more crime intelligence operations.

“Extortion has been emerging over time and has now reached levels where all communities in our country beyond the four provinces indicated above, have become very angry, bitter and agitated, the pain has gone very deep,” he said.

The minister said those behind the extortions were individuals who did not want to work, but rather chose to parade as “armies of murderous parasites” who must be fought and rejected by society.

“They are often heavily armed, operating in groups that instil fear and chaos. The relative ‘silence’ of communities and low reporting is all due to these fears,” Mchunu said adding that police were hard at work fighting the crimes. 

Four suspects were shot dead in a shoot-out with police in Milnerton, Cape Town, while another four were admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds, Mchunu said. 

“In the Eastern Cape, operations are under way and we are focusing on Mthatha and Nelson Mandela Bay where similar crimes, including illegal occupation of buildings and stock theft, are rife.”

Mchunu said the government had initiated the signing of co-operative agreements with the provincial and local government structures to fight the scourge.

“Currently, the operational plan is being rolled out in Cape Town with its six new subdistricts. The model will be replicated in all metros in the country.”

This operational plan would include community police forums and private security companies, he said. 

The plan was also being rolled out in the Eastern Cape. “We are meeting the Gauteng government on Thursday on the same programme, next will be KwaZulu-Natal on the 19th and 20th of this month.” 

EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said Mchunu had no comprehensive crime preventions strategy in his arsenal. He called for effective counterintelligence, and the building of internal state capacity to construct schools, clinics and other public infrastructure as this would help reduce extortion. 

Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana said the rise of extortionists “points to a failure of crime intelligence. It [policing] needs proper intelligence. Acting on intelligence and building watertight cases should be what the police focus on”. 

DA MP and the party’s spokesperson on police Ian Cameron said: “Extortion is a rapidly escalating threat affecting every single layer of society in SA, from larger corporations to smaller corporations [and] even schools [targeted]. [Extortion is] deeply rooted, it jeopardises economic stability and tears at the social fabric... It has become a national crisis.”

ACDP MP Wayne Thring called for extortion rings to be smashed and for perpetrators brought to book. Build One SA MP Mmusi Maimane called for a declaration of war on crime, better policing and an increase in the police budget. 

UDM MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa said some police personnel were working with extortionists. “They must be dealt with or we are going to take the law into our own hands,” he said.

mkentanel@businesslive.co.za