Cape Town - Law enforcement officials have urged the public to remain calm and refrain from spreading panic in response to recent allegations that a protection fee was demanded from the Delft police station by the extortion mafia.
A TikTok post by @yatifyx with a picture of the police station, captioned “Extortion Mafia demands protection fee from Delft Police Station – Cape Town”, gained more than 23 000 views, 300 likes and hundreds of comments in just one day, yesterday.
After learning of this, the police sent out a statement refuting it and calling it fake news.
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa, said: “While the SAPS in the province acknowledges the prevalence of incidents of extortion in some communities of the Western Cape, police wish to caution social media users against spreading unverified information as it causes unnecessary panic. The SAPS, as a law enforcement agency, will not hesitate in stamping the authority of the state, hence no one will extort money and/or protection fee from police. Instead, the SAPS is hard at work clamping down on incidence of extortion and bringing perpetrators to book. Delft police station is fully operational and hard at work ensuring communities in the area are and feel safe.”
She made a plea to individuals who are extorted into paying a protection fee to report incidents to police using the dedicated Western Cape SAPS tollfree number 0800314444.
“All information received will be handled with the necessary care and confidentiality,” Potelwa said.
Delft Community Policing Forum chairperson Reginald Maart said they were aware of the allegations.
“We are disturbed by these types of allegations made by certain individuals. We are aware of the extortion in the Delft area and it’s been managed by well-trained and committed SAPS members as a station together with our own intelligence with the assistance of the district and provincial SAPS.
“We want to ask the community to assist our station, not to post fake rumours about the station. Delft is one of the murder stations but also one of the stations that contributes to the most confiscated firearms, it is well-managed everyday.”
The incident comes a few days after four alleged extortionists were gunned down during a shoot-out in Phoenix, Milnerton, on Thursday afternoon.
Four others were left wounded and were under police guard in hospital.
They were expected to appear in court yesterday.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the case was postponed in their absence to September 9, for them to appear in person.
“They are charged with four counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, possession of unlicensed firearms. Unlawful possession of ammunition,” Ntabazalila said.
Cape Argus