Police assure residents they're working hard to clamp down on extortion gangs in EC

CAPE TOWN - Police have assured residents they were working hard to clamp down on extortion gangs in the Eastern Cape, where horror stories have unfolded in some communities.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said in some cases, he had heard of cases of women in villages who have had to attach money to their windows to avoid being raped. 

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has deployed additional resources to the province, including organised crime detectives, members of the serious and violent crime unit, operatives from the National Intervention Unit and Crime Intelligence officers. 

Formal and informal businesses, including hair salons, vegetable stalls, service station owners and schools, have been targeted by criminals demanding protection fees. 

Mchunu said the worrying trend of extortion must be dealt with, head-on.

"It's not just confined to the Eastern and Western Cape. It's also in KZN and elsewhere. This is what we are confronting and in the next few weeks, we should see results." 

Mchunu has labelled the situation ugly and criminal.

"There are also suspicions of some police officers' involvement and other people. On one hand, we have started to lay ground plans to deal with this and on the other, we are collecting as much information as possible on names and surnames of people who are behind this at any level. There are those who are identified as kingpins and there are those who are identified as runners." 

Police are urging residents to come forward with the names of perpetrators holding their communities ransom.

"It's not confined to extortion only. In Mthatha, there is also the illegal occupation of buildings, both private and public and people are calling on government to intervene and we are intervening right away."