The South African Police Service deployed additional resources to the Eastern Cape, including organised crime detectives, members of the serious and violent crime unit, operatives from the National Intervention Unit and Crime Intelligence officers amid extortion gangs terriorizing the community and businesses.
Picture by: SAPS/XPolice have assured residents they were working
hard to clamp down on extortion gangs in the province.
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.
Formal and informal businesses, including hair
salons, vegetable stalls, service station owners and schools, have been
targeted by extortionists 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. 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," said Mchunu.
Police are urging residents to come forward
with the names of perpetrators holding their communities ransom.
Done: Sihle Jezile
No comments:
Post a Comment