Foreign nationals targeted in S/Africa’s extortion explosion

A South African 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 the shopkeepers outside Stellenbosch, the winelands capital 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Cape Town.The trial has highlighted the targeting of foreign-owned “spaza” shops in a growing extortion economy that pre