[imagesource:creativecommon]

If you’ve never sampled one of the 99 beers at the iconic yellow Beerhouse on Long Street, this weekend will be your last chance.

Owner Randolf Jorberg has decided to call it quits after receiving death threats following his ‘rallying call to other business owners in the CBD to band together against “extortion, intimidation and racketeering’.

Jorberg spoke out against the extortion rackets plaguing the city’s business owners in a September 2022 Carte Blanche exposé . At the time, business owners believed the strong-arm tactics were an attempt by underworld bosses to make up cash lost from nightclubs which were closed during lockdown.

“In the last days, many businesses that never had to pay for protection have been approached by (Nafiz) Modack’s gang to start paying him, asking for up to R20k a month.”

Jorberg received death threats and has since been living a nomadic lifestyle and announced Beerhouse’s closure on his social platforms on Wednesday afternoon.

Jorberg claims the extortion started in 2013 already when a man from the ‘underworld’ pitched a proposal for a protection fee which he refused to pay. The 2015 murder of one of his employees is believed to be a result of his refusal to cooperate.

“A man said if I pay them, I could call them if ever a group too big for our own doorman came in and behaved rowdy and I had to tell him that in two years of trade, the only time that my doorman had to deal with a group that is too big to handle was when he arrived with eight big men days prior.”

“I believe that is what killed him (staffer), my decision not to pay.”

Since then, the ex-chairperson of the Long Street Association has been forced to live ‘a nomadic lifestyle’, saying “The danger they protect you from is themselves. That is what makes it an obvious extortion.”

[source:dailyvoice]