Durban - Fear stalks the town of Umzinto where business people are being held to ransom.
It all started after the July unrest last year when whoonga addicts developed a taste for looting.
Whoonga is made of low-grade heroin and mixed with other additives like rat poison. It is highly addictive.
When the widespread looting ended, the whoonga addicts began to brazenly rob local businesses on the town’s main road called Nelson Mandela Road.
At some stage, a group called The Forum demanded that business people pay protection money. Fees ranged from a few hundred rand to a few thousand rand depending on the size of the business.
Few business owners would speak on the record but all expressed fear for their lives and the future of their businesses.
One business owner said: “The way things work here is simple. If you don’t pay The Forum, the whoonga boys will attack you and your customers. It is as simple as that.”
There are just more than 200 businesses that operate in the town and, according to many owners, the local police have done nothing to assist.
Gora Ally owns a butchery in the area. On his shop window is a sticker: “This premises is protected by The Forum. Right of admission reserved.”
Ally said he was not paying a protection fee but had employed his own security.
According to him, the situation arose due to the lack of police visibility and effective policing.
Nazeer Memhood opened a furniture business over a year ago and acknowledged that he was paying The Forum a protection fee.
“My brother pays the fee to The Forum so I’m not sure what the amount is. Before The Forum came in, the whoonga users stole and because they moved so quickly you could not catch them. As for the police, they didn’t help.”
A few other business people believe The Forum is doing a good job to curb crime.
Beena Ramataur owns a convenience store and said it appeared that most robberies happened on Thursdays.
“Youngsters come around and act as if they are begging. Suddenly they will steal and run. Often, they steal the boxes of produce left outside the shop. I cannot run after them to get my goods back. They are a nuisance.
“I have been running this shop for the past 10 years. Back then we were carefree because nobody interfered with our shops and we could work until 10pm. Since the July unrest last year, theft has intensified.”
Ramataur said she needed her business to survive. She said the police did not seem interested in acting against the crooks even though everyone knew who they were.
“The police are not questioning them so this encourages them. This encourages them to brazenly rob businesses.”
The situation in the town is now escalating. Recently, a group of business people hired a Durban-based security company to protect their shops.
Justine Pillay, the owner of Alpha Security, said they had deployed 20 guards to the town.
“We were confronted by gangs of people last Thursday who called themselves The Forum and said we must leave. I informed them we were hired to work for the shop owners. They tried to intimidate us. We went to the police and informed them what had happened. The police could not help,” he said.
Tecla Nzimande, the chairperson of the Community Policing Forum in Umzinto, said she was not aware of The Forum.
“There are so many forums in Umzinto so I don’t really know about them. I have seen the stickers, but when I enquire, people say I should not involve myself.
“The people who have these stickers on their businesses should be the ones who know who is behind The Forum.”
Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo, SAPS spokesperson, said matters of corruption were always discussed at CPF/sector meetings with the public being informed of the National Hotline, Ipid, Ugu District Commander and Crime Stop numbers.
“The district has taken this complaint seriously and will institute an investigation, but will require specific details as to the complaints in order to guide our investigation.
“To date, no reports or criminal cases have been reported. The community is further encouraged to work together with the police and to report those involved in criminal activities,” said Ngcobo.
Siboniso Duma, the provincial chairperson of the ANC in eThekwini, said the ANC regarded crime as a priority.
"In this regard, as new members of the executive council, we have undertaken to work in an integrated fashion, involving all government departments, to fight crime," said Duma, who is also the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs.
"In particular, I have already brought this matter to the attention of the MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Sipho Hlomuka, and KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. They will definitely pay more attention to this matter as a matter of urgency.
"Importantly, we are encouraged by the sterling work of all law enforcement agencies, especially officers attached to the Organised Crime Investigation and Narcotics Unit for their dedication and hard work. We have confidence that they will continue to arrest those behind drug manufacturing and trafficking which has become rampant in our communities.
"We also acknowledge that government alone has no chance of dealing a permanent blow on crime unless government departments work together .... and with civil society such as labour, business and other different community formations.
"As government we commit to working with Business Against Crime and communities at large to ensure a public display of a united front against crime.
“Communities must work with the police to uproot the massive proliferation of drugs in our communities. It is also important to point out that often the drug lords and drug traffickers are from our own communities. We must therefore co-operate with police at all times.
"We are calling upon all law enforcement agencies to come hard on those who are terrorising communities. Together we must declare that we love our freedom so much that we are not prepared to allow crime to stand between us and our spirit of freedom.
"Today we want to declare that our quest for freedom cannot be complete if our province is plagued by crime which has become so endemic that it affects businesses and hampers economic recovery."
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