It’s true that the fish rots from the head

RECENT breakthroughs by the SAPS in arresting suspects have seemingly not discouraged extortion gangs from chancing their luck.

This week, Daily News sister paper Cape Argus reported on a KFC restaurant undergoing renovations in Bishop Lavis being targeted by local gangsters demanding a protection fee for work there to go ahead.

Gangsters across Cape Town, and now even in the Boland towns, have used the same modus operandi to generate income from struggling small businesses, threatening them with violence if they fail to pay up.

And competition between these gangsters, who initially started by targeting foreign-owned spaza shops, is believed to have been behind the bloody massacres in Khayelitsha and Gugulethu.

One of the men believed to be behind a reign of terror in Khayelitsha is finally behind bars, and awaiting trial after his dramatic arrest in an upmarket Cape Town suburb.

Foreign nationals have now seemingly latched on to the state of lawlessness after last week’s arrest of two suspects in Grabouw who had demanded a monthly payment of R7 000 from a businesswoman (also a foreign national).

While the DA and some of the NGOS active on the Cape Flats have called for an increased number of police officers, what needs to happen is better policing.

That journey starts with recruiting the right personnel, motivated by public service. Like in all parts of government, too many police recruits come from the ranks of the desperately unemployed, seeing the SAPS as a route out of poverty.

This should come as no surprise when one considers the numbers of police officers who often find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Just last year, a Stellenbosch police officer was arrested for extorting a Somali shopkeeper, and more police officers are believed to have been involved in the extortion rackets.

This level of lawlessness, even from the men and women who are supposed to uphold the law, sends a message to criminals.

For the criminals and the cops who chase them it’s the politicians right at the top who set the example.

It’s those who excuse criminality (for all manner of reasons) who give oxygen to the thugs, terrorising communities.