As Cape Town battles to deal with on-going cases of extortion, at least one businessman has fled the Mother City.
Last week, Mayor Geordin-Hill Lewis launched an anti-extortion campaign in efforts to combat the illegal operations.
But it’s too little, too late for the former Cape Flats entrepreneur we spoke to.
The former tavern owner must remain anonymous to protect his family, who are still here.
The victim claims that he laid a case at the police station – but the criminals weren’t arrested.
He told HeartFM News how his world changed sometime in May.
“We were about to close at 22h00, they came in and shot two bullets: the one in the roof and another missed my son who was behind a counter and shot the fridge. Later they came to me telling me that such incidents would take place if I didn’t pay the protection fee”.
The businessman says his decision to flee was made after the extortionists’ demands began to escalate.
Right from the start, he’d been warned that they would shoot patrons in his tavern if he didn’t comply.
And their demand for an immediate joining fee at that stage, was made at gunpoint.
” They escorted me to the bank and withdrew R10,000 and thereafter every month they collected R1,500. And they demanded my cars to go and rob with them after that they dumped the cars elsewhere they wanted to. That’s why I decided to drive away and keep myself away from Cape Town”.