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Pay up, or face the consequences.

That’s the gist of the well-known underworld extortion racket that has been terrifying Long Street bar and club owners for years now.

More recently, extortion efforts have extended to restaurants and coffee shops, with reports that underworld figures are trying to supplement lost income due to COVID-19 by targeting businesses that had previously been left alone.

Throughout it all, one man has remained vocal – Randolf Jorberg, chairperson of the Long Street Association and owner of Beerhouse.

It’s a matter close to his heart, given that in 2015, popular doorman Joe Louis Kazadi Kanyona was stabbed to death outside the Beerhouse entrance, in an attack many believe was linked to issues surrounding extortion payments.

Jorberg, who now lives overseas, says he has been told not to return to the country, receiving death threats via WhatsApp.

He recently appeared on eNCA:

Let’s all pretend to be shocked that our wannabe gangster police minister’s promise to act swiftly was merely empty words.

This is not a problem unique to the Cape Town CBD, with business owners in Khayelitsha recently speaking with TimesLIVE about similar rackets in their community.

Nolitha Mahamba (not her real name) says she has also received death threats:

After reporting the extortion to the Khayelitsha Development Forum, Mahamba said she was called by someone claiming to be using an untraceable phone.

“He said, ‘Since you are protecting those informal traders you must know that in the end we will find you.’ I told him if they want to kill me, so be it. There is nothing I can do.”

The amount payable for protection can vary from R300 per month through into the thousands, and are often enough to put the survival of the business under threat:

Nophelo Mbiza* said: “I am 66 and I cannot get a job anywhere else. I am using this income to supplement my pension. I will not survive if I am forced to pay R800 protection fee. My business would collapse.”

Western Cape police spokesperson Brig Novela Potelwa said that a hotline had been set up for reports of extortion, as well as a plan with “targeted operations at identified hotspots”.

Whether or not that works remains to be seen.

What we do know is that in large parts of the city, criminals operate with a sense of impunity that is not unfounded.

[sources:enca&timeslive]