Foreign nationals targeted in S/Africa’s extortion explosion

A South African man and his two sons, one a police officer, appeared before a Cape Town magistrate last month accused of extorting around 50 convenience stores run by Ethiopians and Somalis. Also in the dock was a Somali alleged to have collected protection fees from shopkeepers outside Stellenbosch. The trial highlights the targeting of foreign-owned spaza shops in a growing extortion economy, and immigrant-run shops were also a focus of xenophobic unrest earlier this year.

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