\u201cWe get that on a daily basis. To say weekly, I would be understating it. Khayelitsha Development Forum is getting those complaints from local businesses that [they\u2019re] unable to operate [their] businesses freely because of this threat of extortion,\u201d Jwara said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mpumzi Mange, a community liaison officer at the Khayelitsha Community Trust, said some business owners were being forced to hand over a substantial portion of their earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome demand 15% to 20% on total earnings<\/strong>. It affects their businesses because there is living proof that if you don’t comply, they will shoot you, and it has happened many times,\u201d Mange said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime has identified Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Gugulethu among the Cape Town communities particularly affected by extortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the research, although smaller-scale extortion existed previously, large-scale extortion targeting township businesses first emerged in Khayelitsha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One gang expert described the township as having the \u201cbragging rights\u201d when it comes to extortion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The report also highlighted how criminal groups have diversified their income streams, with extortion becoming as lucrative as illicit drug sales in areas such as Khayelitsha and Nyanga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour capital outlay is less; you don\u2019t have to source and store a product, you just have to have foot soldiers who go out and collect the money,\u201d the expert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These demands have expanded beyond informal traders to include formal supermarkets, municipal service contractors, waste removal workers, and health personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South African Police Service statistics showed that protection rackets are a significant component of the crime in the township.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Western Cape accounts for a disproportionately large share of these cases nationally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During the first quarter of the 2026\/2027 financial year, the province recorded 52 of the 112 protection racket cases in the national sample, representing 46.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also accounted for 46 of the 85 sampled cases in which a direct protection fee was demanded, or 54.1% of the national total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The demands often target small businesses, including spaza shops, taverns, and other informal traders, which are particularly vulnerable due to their limited financial resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Community representatives have described shootings and other acts of violence used to enforce payments, which have left traders facing a choice between surrendering their earnings and risking their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The KDF noted that, in communities where informal enterprises are a vital source of employment, extortion can undermine livelihoods, discourage new investment, and increase the cost of doing business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" one of Cape Town\u2019s largest townships is being overrun by mafia-style extortion gangs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":881446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2114666108351312137","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2249680239185708","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[23547,853,26938],"class_list":["post-881444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-khayelitsha","tag-south-africa","tag-the-khayelitsha-development-forum-kdf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881444","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=881444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881449,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881444\/revisions\/881449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Western Cape is South Africa’s extortion capital <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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