New mafia taking hold in the best-run province in South Africa
Criminal mafia groups are increasingly targeting schools in the Western Cape, threatening staff and demanding protection fees from the schools and even parents.
The Western Cape and the City of Cape Town are often regarded as the best-run province and major metro in South Africa.
For example, the City of Cape Town is the only metropolitan municipality to have received a clean audit outcome, maintaining the rating for a third year in a row.
The Auditor-General’s (AG) Consolidated General Report on Local Government Audit Outcomes showed that only 41 of the country’s 257 municipalities received clean audits, with Cape Town standing alone among the major metros.
However, even AG Tsakani Maluleke noted that a clean audit, while critical, does not automatically mean that everything is excellent—and one sticky point for Cape Town is gang violence and organised crime.
This is evident in the spike in reports of schools in Cape Town being targeted by extortion mafias.
These schools have to pay protection money to ensure they don’t fall victim to vandalism and other crimes.
It also emerged that some principals are resorting to paying extortionists to protect school property. In some cases, parents are even being asked to cough up to contribute to these fees.
Speaking in an interview with CapeTalk, National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA) executive director Basil Manuel said the problem is difficult to quantify because it largely happens in the shadows.
However, he warned that it is likely far more widespread than many realise. Manuel said reports and stories have surfaced in multiple provinces, indicating that the issue is not confined to the Western Cape.
“We know in Gauteng there have been stories that have slipped out every now and again. We’ve heard of one or two stories in Mpumalanga as well,” he said.
He said the trend is extremely worrying and that schools are being exploited because they are highly vulnerable and often left with few realistic options.
“It’s criminal elements that are purporting to be the protectors,” Manuel said. “Schools are just desperate because schools are so vulnerable, and that is the big issue.”
Schools between a rock and a hard place
According to Manuel, the desperation comes from the difficulty of securing school grounds and replacing what is lost or damaged after repeated attacks.
He said the financial and emotional cost of repeated vandalism often pushes schools into making impossible decisions.
“The department is not coming around to fix, and things are stolen that are sometimes irreplaceable,” he said.
“So people find, or justify the fact that it is probably easier to pay a little something to prevent those big losses of irreplaceable things.”
While Manuel stressed that he does not condone paying extortion money, he said he understands why some principals feel cornered.
He said many principals do try to follow the correct channels and report security problems to the education department, but help is often slow.
Manuel added that the scale of the challenge is immense, especially when considering the number of schools in the system.
“When you look at 24,000 to 25,000 schools, it is extremely difficult to ensure that everybody is covered with two or three security guards,” he said.
Manuel warned that if left unchecked, school extortion could spread rapidly and become entrenched.
He explained that teachers in Umtata were telling him it’s become a daily reality in some areas. Criminals watch what others do. If it works for some without consequences, then others follow.
“And so you start having a whole lot more of this happening. Everybody recognises the problem. So it’s not identification that’s the issue, it’s the solution,” Manuel said.
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