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We don’t need to spell out in any great detail why restaurants, bars, cafes, and hotels are struggling to stay afloat at present.
These are brutally tough times for the hospitality industry, and things aren’t being made any easier by claims that underworld bosses are extorting businesses in the Cape Town CBD, forcing them to pay for so-called ‘protection’.
This is nothing new, with similar reports dating all the way back to 2015, but one man has decided to take a stand and speak out.
Randolf Jorberg, chairperson of the Long Street Association and owner of Beerhouse, says that these businesses are being told to “pay up or else”.
This via IOL:
[Jorberg] has issued a rallying call to other business owners in the nightlife district to band together against what he calls extortion, intimidation and racketeering.
While nightclubs and party destinations in the CBD have long been paying “protection fees”, for the first time daytime restaurants and coffee shops have been targeted, Jorberg said.
“In the last days, many businesses that never had to pay for protection have been approached by (Nafiz) Modack’s gang to start paying him, asking for up to R20k a month,” Jorberg said.
“Their bread-and-butter business is nightclubs and nightclubs are not trading. Seemingly, they are so desperate for turnover that they are going to regular restaurants and even coffee shops.”
In 2015, popular doorman Joe Louis Kazadi Kanyona was stabbed to death outside the Beerhouse entrance, in an attack many believe was linked to issues surrounding extortion payments.
Jorberg has now taken the decision to shut Beerhouse down, for the time being, fearing for the safety of his staff, who he says have received threats.
According to his estimates, as many as 200 to 300 businesses are currently paying a monthly sum for ‘protection’, with amounts ranging from as little as R1 200 a month for smaller businesses, through to R80 000 for major players.
On the first day of level 2 lockdown, Jorberg said business owners reported visits by “threatening” groups of men with bodyguards.
“They came with balaclavas, asking for R20 000,” he said.
The crime on Long Street is bad enough without worrying about men in balaclavas arriving at the front door.
Modack has denied the allegations, and says these claims are rumours started by rivals who want to slow his business expansion in Cape Town.
Worryingly, for other businesses in and around the CBD, Jorberg now says that the protection racket has extended into the likes of Sea Point and Woodstock.
His interview with CapeTalk’s Refilwe Moloto is well worth a listen in full, but here are some quotes:
Four black vehicles are rolling up with big bodyguards coming out, visibly armed, obviously there to intimidate people, not coming for a friendly chat. He comes with a very clear message – pay up or else…
Business owners live in fear, with some of them having paid for years out of fear…
What happens, again and again, is the same cycle, People who speak out begin being intimidated by Modack, receiving death threats, receiving increased visits, and at some point, people will crack.
Here’s that interview in full:
