By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Fannie Masemola revealed that 14 extortionists have been gunned down in shoot-outs with police across the country in two weeks.
During a media briefing in the Johannesburg CBD on Thursday, Masemola said that extortion-related incidents were on the rise in Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal, as well as in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape.
Masemola said efforts to stop extortion were continuing and if South African Police Service (SAPS) members were found to be linked to the crimes, they would be prosecuted and treated as criminals.
“The DPCI [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation] and other combat teams in Kwa-Zulu Natal have arrested some of our police members in that province where they were extorting R100,000 from a businessman. Eleven members and one civilian were arrested. As long as they do extortion or they do crime, we will treat them like criminals.”
Masemola added that the crime of extortion requires a specialised investigative capacity and that is why they have deployed specialist teams led by the DPCI, crime intelligence and organised crime units to lead these investigations.
Nationally, 319 extortion cases have been opened with police between April 2023 and August 2024. A breakdown is as follows:
Western Cape registered the highest cases with 119, followed by Eastern Cape with 82 and Kwazulu-Natal with 63 and Gauteng with 31 cases.
While the number of arrests that are linked to these cases are 151.
A breakdown per province is as follows: 69 arrests were made in the Western Cape, 24 were made in the Eastern Cape, 23 were made in Gauteng and 20 arrests were registered in KwaZulu-Natal.
Masemola explained the difficulty in filing charges against extortionists because victims unwittingly engage in the crime themselves.
He said extortion victims begin meeting extortionists demands but when amounts escalate, “that is when they scream extortion”.
“When you open a case they always find it difficult, when they give a statement, to say when did they start. Otherwise, they involve themself in this extortion,” Masemola said.
In the past four weeks, roughly 85 000 suspects had been arrested for a multitude of crimes.
Since launching in May 2023, Operation Shanela has registered 850 000 arrests, removing 824 illegal and unlicensed firearms from the streets.
Between April and August, 5 711 persons were convicted of various crimes, including life sentences for 347 convicted persons.
Accepting that crime was still prevalent, Masemola stated that the operations were yielding results and that police were not afraid to take the fight to criminals.
Meanwhile twenty-five bullets were fired during the murder of seven Khambule family members who were killed execution-style in Highflats, KZN, on Wednesday evening.
KZN police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said evidence showed that some of the family members were shot in the head while lying on the floor.
He said among the dead were three women aged 35, 38, and 55, a 48-year-old man and three children aged five, 11 and 12. Their bodies were found lying in a pool of blood inside a living room.
“The family was attacked just before 8 pm while watching television. The forensic team found that 25 bullets were fired during the attack.”
“They found 18 cartridges and seven bullet heads. We are convinced that this was a planned execution. They organised and planned to come and kill this family.
“Some family members were shot in the head while lying down. We have established a provincial team to work with the district to try and follow up on this investigation. We hope we are going to find the perpetrators, “said Mkhwanazi.
He said the motive of the killing was yet to be established, although there was a suspicion of a family feud and business-related tensions.
“We call upon anyone who might have information that may assist in the investigation or about the possible whereabouts of the suspects to tip off the nearest police or make use of our crime stop number 08600 10111,” he said.