Atlantis police say the attempted murder of two business owners is not linked to an extortion case opened after threatening protection-fee notices surfaced in the township.
By Peter Luhanga
- Gunmen shot two shopkeepers at a Witsand tuck shop in a suspected robbery attack.
- Separate extortion letters demand R1,500 and warn: “If you don’t pay we kill.”
- Terrified business owners say fear is spreading across the township.
Two Ethiopian shopkeepers were shot and wounded in Witsand, Atlantis, last week in what police say was a robbery-related attack unrelated to a separate extortion case opened after threatening protection-fee notices circulated among informal businesses in the township.
Western Cape police spokesperson Thembakazi Mpendukana said Atlantis police registered two counts of attempted murder after the shooting, which occurred at about 8.30pm on Tuesday 7 April at a tuck shop on Kontiki Farm along Old Mamre Road.
She said the victims were found with gunshot wounds and transported to a medical facility for treatment, adding that no arrests had yet been made.
Atlantis SAPS spokesperson Captain Liza Munro later said investigators believed robbery was the motive for the shooting.
Munro said Zarehuni Ortabo, 32, sustained gunshot wounds to the head and leg, while Temosgen Dena Abiyo, 31, was shot in the chest, with the bullet exiting through his back.
Both men were taken to hospital for treatment.
The separate extortion investigation follows reports that informal businesses in Witsand received threatening notices demanding monthly “protection” payments of R1,500.
The notices warn that business owners who that refuse to pay will be shot, burnt down or shut, and state bluntly: “If you don’t pay we kill.”
One notice instructed recipients to pay by 4 April, while another described itself as a “last warning”.
A local business owner, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said he received one of the notices at his premises on Wednesday 8 April after groups of young men moved through the township distributing the papers.
“They were splitting up and going section by section,” he said. “They looked young, maybe between 20 and 26.”
He said one notice had been left at foreign-owned shops, while another, addressed more broadly to businesses in the area, appeared intended for the wider informal business community.
The business owner said he opened a case with Atlantis police after receiving the letter.
“Everyone is scared,” he said. “People in the township are living in fear. Even my family is shaken.”
He said the cellphone number printed on the notices was active when dialled and appeared on Truecaller under the name “ABC”.
Mpendukana said Witsand police had opened an extortion case after becoming aware of the threatening notices and that the docket would be forwarded to the Cape Town Provincial Extortion Unit for further investigation.
The allegations have heightened anxiety among business owners and residents in Witsand, where community leaders say criminal intimidation is spreading.
In a statement issued on Sunday under the SANCO JS Masakala branch letterhead, Witsand community leaders said business owners were being intimidated and warned that residents and community leaders alike feared for their safety.
The latest tensions come little more than a year after Moses Matiso, chairperson of the SANCO JS Masakala Peninsula branch in Witsand, and a vocal opponent of protection-fee extortion in the area, was shot dead in March last year while cutting grass at St John’s Church in a killing that shocked the township.
Anyone with information relating to the shooting has been urged to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or report anonymously via the MySAPS mobile application.
