Gangsters repeatedly hit on small businesses including hair salons, hawkers and child care centres in Khayelitsha.
This was made known by the Khayelitsha Development Forum.
The forum hosted a prayer service in the area over the weekend.
Residents complained that they were fed up and need urgent response from the authorities.
The forum spokesperson, Ndithini Tyhido indicated that even pedestrians were being forced to pay protection money.
Troubled residents had to go to the extent of showing these gangsters their pay slips so that they can determine the amount they will collect forcefully from them.
“There is too many of those cases. This started with these people extorting the foreign national-owned shops and now they are seeing the expansion of the income stream network to private and individual households and smaller businesses.”
“And the problem here is the targeting of the poorest of the poor.”
Deputy State Security Minister Zizi Kodwa joined residents at the Khayelitsha Stadium over the weekend.
He encouraged residents to work with law enforcement agencies in order to get their streets back.
“So as the community, we are mobilizing ourselves, trying to deal with the matter head-on.”
“The problem that we are facing now is fear, people are even fearing coming out and people fear reporting these crimes”, said Tyhido.
