{"id":839501,"date":"2025-10-14T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=839501"},"modified":"2025-10-14T16:52:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:52:40","slug":"warning-over-new-mafia-hijacking-south-africans-across-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/839501\/warning-over-new-mafia-hijacking-south-africans-across-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning over new mafia hijacking South Africans across the country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans are being warned that some taxi operators are literally hijacking motorists and forcing them to pay to retrieve their vehicles, a problem that is escalating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He raised the alarm over what he described in an interview<\/a><\/strong> with Cape Talk as a growing wave of \u201chijackings and mafia-style extortion\u201d being carried out by taxi associations across parts of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said the City of Cape Town has received several reports of motorists, including those operating private staff transport and scholar transport, being stopped, having their vehicles seized by taxi operators, and then being forced to pay for their release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith was blunt in his assessment of what these so-called \u201cimpoundments\u201d actually are. He stressed that it is not an impoundment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is hijacking when somebody takes your vehicle without your consent and removes that vehicle from your control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is called hijacking, and it\u2019s imperative that people not reward them, not pay them. This is a plain and simple matter of hijacking and extortion\u2014and it is disgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that these incidents are often targeted at vulnerable people, such as workers being transported late at night, or scholar transport operators taking children to school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery often it is aimed at quite vulnerable people being taken home from work at difficult shift hours, or scholar transport, which is what it is often aimed at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said the city\u2019s investigations show that the activity is unequivocally connected to the taxi industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vehicles seized in this way are typically taken to taxi rank offices, where the owners are forced to negotiate or pay for their release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is done by certain associations explicitly. The vehicles are taken to their rank offices and kept there, and it is to those offices where you go and pay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transport mafia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He described one operation where the city\u2019s metro police intervened directly. \u201cI was on patrol in Khayelitsha one night when an Uber driver alerted us that this had just happened to him,\u201d Smith said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went to the taxi office, found the vehicle there, returned it to the driver, but we also found an illegal firearm hidden behind a cabinet and a lot of cash. They had obviously been taking in fares, but also some extortion throughout the day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith urged anyone affected to contact the city immediately rather than pay the extortionists. \u201cThe City is keen to help act on this,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople can call our call centre on 021 480 7700, and we will assist. We will retrieve that vehicle and arrest the persons for hijacking, but only on condition that the person is willing to open a case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that victims often decline to open criminal cases, which allows the perpetrators to continue their activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat generally happens with these matters is that the persons are not willing to open criminal cases. They want us to recover the vehicle and then just let it be,\u201d he explained.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, those extortionists just keep on doing what they do. It\u2019s imperative that you\u2019re willing to open a case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith warned that these taxi groups are operating in the same way as other organised crime networks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken about the construction mafia, so why are we not talking more about the taxi extortion mafia?\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe transport mafia is well covered in research. We are acutely aware of this particular extortion format, because there are roving patrol teams that travel around the city,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese groups include three or four men in a vehicle, sometimes wearing bibs, making sure only certain vehicles pass certain points.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith noted that the city has asked the provincial government to strengthen laws to make these intimidation tactics explicitly illegal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem also extends beyond businesses and school transport, with even private motorists being stopped and threatened for giving lifts to friends or relatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith urged motorists to report incidents and hold law enforcement accountable. \u201cPlease do call our call centre\u2014we will help,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you must also challenge the South African Police Service. Ask them what they are doing about this and how many people they have prosecuted. Because it is seriously out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans are being warned of a group literally hijacking motorists and forcing them to pay to retrieve their vehicles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":811454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[17142,2356,853,3382],"class_list":["post-839501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-capetalk","tag-city-of-cape-town","tag-south-africa","tag-taxis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839501"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839943,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839501\/revisions\/839943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}