The Western Cape government is pushing for more police resources to take on the rising and lethal scourge of extortion.

Provincial MEC for Police Oversight and Community Safety Anroux Marais said that she will be making a request to Police Minister Senzo Mchunu following his department’s deployment of additional boots on the ground in the Eastern Cape to combat growing extortion there.

“More resources are needed in the Cape and I trust that the decisions being made by the police department are data driven.” said Marais. 

Extortionists have been holding construction sites and businesses to ransom. In some instances, these protection fee crimes have turned deadly.

Police have admitted that extortion is problematic in the Western Cape and in several other provinces.