More than 50% of calls to Eastern Cape extortion hotline were pranks

The Eastern Cape is the province hardest hit by extortion, where businesses and government institutions are told to pay protection fees or face severe consequences, including death or business closure.

To curb this rising crime trend, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has deployed additional forces to the province.

On Friday, 23 August, Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Nomthetheleli Mene launched the extortion hotline number in Mthatha.

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“This follows an outcry by various communities on crimes of extortion, especially in OR Tambo and Nelson Mandela Bay policing precincts,” said Mene at the time.

“On observation, it has been noticed that communities do not report to the police because they fear for their lives. With the above challenges, the Eastern Cape SAPS Management has launched a centralised contact number where incidents of extortion can be reported.”

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Mene urged community members to anonymously report extortion by calling 082 387 1561.

Hotline hot mess

On Sunday, National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola provided an update on the progress since the hotline’s launch.

Masemola expressed concern about the number of extortion cases reported since his visit with Police Minister Senzo Mchunu three weeks ago.

He said that the figure does not reflect the scale of the problem, as reported by the media and during engagements with communities.

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“Simply put, there is underreporting of cases when it comes to extortion. This is indeed worrisome because for police to ultimately win the war against these extortionists, we are going to require community members to report these incidents by opening cases with the police,” said Masemola.

“We can only conduct a thorough investigation through the assistance of witnesses and victims of crime, in order to put these perpetrators behind bars.”

38 out of 1,180 calls were extortion-related

Since the launch of the hotline, two weeks ago, 1,180 calls were received from community members. However, 688 of these were prank calls, and 431 were from people merely verifying the hotline.

The total number of extortion-related cases reported through the hotline stands at only 38.

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The remaining 23 calls were not specified.

“We are assuring communities that a dedicated team of investigators and members from specialised units that are attached to the task team dealing with extortions are working on the information.”

Meanwhile, Mthatha residents will on Monday march to their local police station to submit a memorandum of demands on the rising crime in the area.