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- The Western Cape government and the city of Cape Town are concerned by the inaction of Police Minister Bheki Cele regarding the convening of a task force to tackle extortion.
- Cele has targeted JP Smith, a member of the Cape Town mayco, claiming that Smith complains to the media but has never called him.
- Smith said he sent a message to Cele, who blocked him on WhatsApp.
The provincial government of the Western Cape and the city of Cape Town are pressuring Police Minister Bheki Cele to fulfill his commitment to end extortion throughout the city.
Cele, in turn, had a chance with the Cape Town mayor’s committee member for safety, JP Smith.
Cele pledged to crack down on multidisciplinary crackdowns on the Cape in mid-September, but a multidisciplinary task force has not yet assembled for this purpose.
On Sunday, the Western Cape MEC for Community Security, Albert Fritz, said he wrote to Cele, “urgently requesting that the cross-cutting steering committee on organized crime and extortion in the province be convened and convened.”
On September 16, Cele announced an offensive against safety nets.
Cele said that all government agencies would work together and if necessary the South African Revenue Service, Special Investigation Unit and the Financial Intelligence Center would be rounded up, the National Tax Authority would be assisted with strengthening the cases to as they went to court and suffered. The cases would be reopened, News24 reported at the time.
A high-level meeting was held at the Western Cape Police Headquarters involving, among others, Cele, the head of the Hawks, General Godfrey Lebeya, Cele’s deputy, Cassel Mathale, the Commissioner of the National Police , General Khehla Sitole, Smith and Fritz.
On Monday, eight people died after a shooting in Gugulethu, with rival gangs involved in extortion allegedly behind it.
Do you think the Cape Town City Bowl extortion is bad? Khayelitsha and other neighborhoods are experiencing even more significant extortion from gangsters, according to charges by JP Smith, a member of the mayor’s safety and security committee. | @ TammyPetersen87 https://t.co/ohaSPd5ppt
– News24 (@ News24) November 5, 2020
Later, Smith expressed frustration at what he called Cele’s “slow response” to launch a steering committee or task force to curb extortion experienced by businesses in and around the City Bowl.
Smith said it had since become clear that businesses and residents in other areas were fighting “massive and widespread extortion” from foreign and local businesses, as well as from construction sites, early childhood development facilities and municipal services. reported News24.
On Saturday, Cele addressed a ministerial imbizo in Langa, Cape Town, where he complained that Smith blamed him. [Cele] when looking for a scapegoat and complaining to the media instead of calling him on the phone.
“I don’t know what to do with it. We agreed to pick up the phone,” Cele said.
“If you are good to me, I will be very good to you. If you are bad, I will be doubly bad.”
“The guy is sick of not wanting to do the things he’s supposed to do,” Cele said.
Cele said she had a plan, which was delayed by the assassination of Colonel Charl Kinnear on September 18.
Smith told News24 on Sunday that he tried to contact police through formal channels. He also sent several very polite text messages to Cele, but was blocked by him on WhatsApp, while Mathale had the decency to reply to his messages.
READ | ‘This is Mafia 101’: a multi-agency committee gets tough on protection scams in Cape Town
Smith said that other than a directive to police stations to review their extortion cases, there has been no significant movement.
He said that, as far as he knows, no specific investigators and prosecutors have been assigned to investigate the extortion cases.
He said the minister publicly promised to involve other actors, including the City, but, so far, this has not happened.
“It makes us complicit in their failure,” Smith said.
“Meanwhile, the bodies are piling up as he performs custom attacks,” Smith said.
Smith said that no amount of visible surveillance is going to stop extortion.
Due to the nature of the crime, it requires investigators. The City’s law enforcement agencies do not have investigative capabilities.
In a statement issued Sunday, Fritz said that at the September 16 meeting it was agreed that two complementary but separate committees would be formed. The first committee was Safer City, which is a SAPS initiative that focuses on security in all metropolitan areas of the country.
“The second committee was a specific cross-cutting steering committee that would be created and convened by SAPS. It would attract the province, the city, SAPS, NPA, SARS and other relevant actors to specifically address the issue of extortion in the province.
“At the end of the meeting, the city of Cape Town and the provincial government provided the names of the officials who would attend the first meeting of this committee. This steering committee to address the issue of extortion has never met and has not been summoned, “reads Fritz’s statement.
“While I am pleased with the progress made through the Safer City committee, it is very concerning that we have not yet convened or met through the cross-cutting steering committee on organized crime and extortion.
“However, the Safer City Committee’s efforts alone are not enough to address the spate of extortion and gang-related shootings that we have seen in recent weeks.
“Among them was the gruesome shooting in Gugulethu, which killed eight on Monday, November 2.”
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