Illutrative image: Money (Image: iStock) | Arms (Image: iStock) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) Sitting in the witness box at the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court in late February, a Nelson Mandela Bay man recounted how he watched helplessly as his personal life and reputation unravelled before his eyes.
He told the court how a secret rendezvous with a prostitute at a guesthouse four years ago turned his entire life upside down when he found himself in the clutches of an alleged extortion syndicate.
His indiscretion ended up costing him more than R700,000, and while an arrest was made, other members of the criminal network remain unaccounted for.
But his case is but one example of how extortion syndicates are identifying victims, holding a sword over their heads and then threatening to expose their shame, shut down their businesses or prevent them from conducting operations that put food on the table.
And earlier this month, with the release of the quarterly crime statistics, acting police minister Firoz Cachalia conceded that the country’s law enforcement is struggling to form a comprehensive picture of the extent to which extortion syndicates have a grip on society.
/file/attachments/orphans/WhatsAppImage2026-02-17at210540_104221.jpeg "Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia. (Photo: Phando Jikelo / RSA Parliament)")
During court proceedings, the 61-year-old complainant shed light on how his extortion unfolded, while the accused, Mulalo Portia Tshitambo, sat in the dock after pleading not guilty to a string of charges, including extortion, fraud, corruption and defeating the end of justice.
It came to light that following the complainant’s interlude with the prostitute at a Gqeberha guesthouse in February 2022, he received a phone call from a man claiming to be Warrant Officer Makwena, who had arrested the same prostitute in Durban with counterfeit money, and she claimed the money belonged to the complainant, who had raped her.
However, he was told his indiscretion would remain a secret if he agreed to pay R10,000 into a certain bank account. Unfortunately for the complainant, what followed was eight months of continued harassment, threats and demands for more money.
Elaborate plot
The plot thickened as Makwena allegedly introduced the complainant to “the judge” that would help make the docket disappear, but who was clearly also part of the syndicate and also demanded money.
A series of payments into an FNB bank account totalled R390,500, while a series of instant money transfers, to no fewer than 15 different cellphone numbers, cost the complainant a further R355,050.
Finally realising that no docket was forthcoming, that he was the victim of a very costly scam and accepting the embarrassment of his situation, the complainant approached the police to report the matter.
The investigating officer, Sergeant Dumisani Ntshanyana, told the court how the bank account, and one of the cellphone numbers provided to the complainant, led him directly to Tshitambo, an accountant with the department of labour in Atteridgeville, Pretoria.
He told her that the bank account registered in her name was the subject of an ongoing investigation, and she requested time to consult an attorney.
Ntshanyana testified that he got a call from Tshitambo a few weeks later, desperate to meet with him. She offered him R30,000 in exchange for the docket he was investigating.
In a bid to buy himself some time, gather his thoughts and get his superiors on the call with him, he tried to negotiate more money from Tshitambo, who refused to go higher than R30,000 but agreed to fly to Gqeberha to make the transaction.
However, the trap had been laid, and once Tshitambo handed Ntshanyana the cash he handed her a fake docket, adding charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice to her charge sheet.
She remains the sole accused, and her trial is still ongoing.
Protection rackets
Meanwhile, two Gqeberha businessmen, involved in the scrap metal trade, find themselves at the centre of a protection fee racket, costing them thousands every month, in addition to being forced to employ private bodyguards.
Speaking to Daily Maverick on condition of anonymity, the men said they were first targeted in 2023 when a group of thugs approached them at their business demanding R100,000 per month.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/BM-Xolisa-oped-ScrapMetalSaga-option-02.jpg "A general view of scrap metal in Mthatha, South Africa. (Photo: Alon Skuy / The Times / Gallo Images )")
“It was explained to us that if we don’t pay the money our lives, and the lives of our employees would be forfeit. But if we paid, they would allow us to operate and keep rival syndicates off our backs,” one of the businessmen said.
After a series of negotiations and threats, they settled on a monthly fee of R58,000 and agreed that one of the syndicate’s agents be employed by them to keep an eye on their operation.
The picture changed suddenly when members from within the syndicate allegedly started killing each other for a bigger slice of the pie, and just as the businessmen were wondering to whom they now had to pay the fee, they started receiving phone calls from within the St Alban’s prison earlier this year.
“A new player came onto the scene and claimed to now run the syndicate. He asked us how much we were paying monthly, and we renegotiated a deal for R35,000 per month.
“But other names also started contacting us, wanting to broker new deals and coming with new threats of violence. We’ve now been forced to get private security to follow us around at nearly R30,000 per month because we no longer know who could be coming for us.”
The businessmen said they live in a state of permanent anxiety, constantly looking over their shoulders, not knowing when they might be targeted.
“We phoned the police. We told them what’s happening, but they refused to help without us giving official statements. They fail to understand that if we do that, our lives are as good as over.
“These syndicates will find out through connections within the police, or they will wait for us to testify in court. If we open a case we are as good as dead,” they said.
No business exempt
And it seems no business is exempt.
Reports of spaza shops, fresh produce vendors and any matter of small business operating in Walmer Township are forced to pay similar protection fees to violent syndicates.
Even e-hailers have fallen prey to opportunistic criminals.
“A few years ago there was a spate of e-hailer drivers being hijacked, assaulted and even killed in certain parts of Gqeberha, particularly New Brighton and Kwazakhele. We identified several no-go zones, and actively avoided them for our own safety,” a member of the United E-hailers Association said.
“But it got to the point where the no-go zones became so big and we were competing over a smaller and smaller percentage of the city. We were forced to broker protection deals with the gangs running the streets, just to gain access to the streets where we can pick up fares.”
He said the deals and amounts vary depending on the area. In some places you pay less than R100 for a so-called “day pass”, while other gangs demand weekly or monthly fees that could reach into the thousands.
“In some parts of Kwazakhele there are rival gangs and both have to be paid, or the guys would just demand more money despite the deals that are in place.
“But what choice do we have? Either you pay and you can be the only e-hailer in the area, or you go into town and there are 20 other drivers competing with each other.”
Extortion headache
During the announcement of the third-quarter crime stats for the 2025/26 police financial year, Cachalia singled out extortion as a headache for which the police have limited data and even fewer solutions.
He explained that the crime stats only deal with certain categories of crime, and for others, such as extortion, the numbers are never reported on.
“Most organised crime is not recorded in the crime statistics. Most extortion of small businesses is not even reported to the police,” Cachalia said.
National police commissioner General Fannie Masemola added that the police, in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, executed several special operations to target extortion syndicates in the Eastern Cape among other places.
/file/attachments/orphans/6I1A5288_484070.jpg "National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)")
However, the businessmen in the scrap game say they do not feel the police presence, and they do not believe the police have the capacity to protect those who report extortion rackets.
“These syndicates have no respect for human life. If they are willing to take out their own associates, our lives mean nothing to them. At the end of the day, protection fees and extortion have become part of the cost of doing business,” one said. DM