Schools in the Western Cape are reportedly becoming the latest targets of extortionists, with some principals said to be paying “protection” money to avoid burglary, vandalism and repeated damage to school property. The warning comes from Basil Manuel, executive director of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa, who said on CapeTalk and 702 that the practice is difficult to quantify because it happens “under the sheets”, but is serious enough to have surfaced in Cape Town and beyond.
The stronger and more accurate angle here is not that a single new criminal syndicate has officially “taken over” the Western Cape. The verified record is narrower. What is publicly supported is that school extortion has been reported in the province, that NAPTOSA says some principals feel cornered into paying criminals, and that the Western Cape government has already acknowledged extortion as an organised and growing threat to public services and the provincial economy.
What we know so far
EWN reported on 1 April that schools in Cape Town are reportedly paying protection money to avoid vandalism and other crimes, and that in some cases parents are being asked to contribute to these so-called security fees. Manuel said schools are vulnerable, the cost of replacing stolen or damaged property is high, and some principals rationalise that it is easier to “pay a little something” than suffer repeated losses.
Manuel also said the issue may not be limited to the Western Cape. According to his remarks, similar stories have surfaced in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. That means the Western Cape story should be read as part of a wider pattern of school-targeted extortion rather than as an isolated provincial anomaly.
The Western Cape government’s own statements show why schools are susceptible to this kind of pressure. In February, the Western Cape Education Department said 36 burglary and vandalism incidents were reported by 32 schools over the 2025/26 summer holidays, even after the department subsidised holiday security at 441 schools. It said items stolen or damaged included fencing, electrical cables, plumbing fixtures, kitchen equipment and food for learners.
That matters because extortion tends to thrive where repeated criminal damage collides with weak protection and slow recovery. Manuel’s remarks about schools being left desperate sit alongside WCED’s own acknowledgement that school properties remain attractive targets and that even subsidised security has not eliminated the problem.
Why it matters
This story is bigger than school vandalism alone. In June 2025, the Western Cape Government convened a multi-sectoral anti-extortion summit and said extortion had evolved from isolated incidents into an organised, systemic pattern of criminality. Premier Alan Winde said around R400 million in infrastructure projects in the province had been stalled by extortion by late 2024, while Minister Anroux Marais said extortion was a direct threat to livelihoods, public services and infrastructure development.
Until now, the public discussion around extortion in the Western Cape has centred more heavily on construction, transport and hospitality. What makes the current warning important is that schools now appear to be part of that same coercive economy. If principals are indeed paying to avoid damage, the cost is not only financial. It also means criminal pressure is reaching institutions meant to serve children, teachers and communities.
There is also a governance issue. Manuel said some principals feel the department is slow to help after damage is done, and that employing enough guards across a system of roughly 24,000 to 25,000 schools nationally is unrealistic. Those comments are his, not a formal WCED position, but they help explain why some school leaders may feel trapped between repeated criminality and limited practical options.
At the same time, the official provincial record shows the WCED is not inactive. The department has highlighted reduced summer-holiday incidents compared with the previous year and has pointed to subsidised security and closer work with SAPS and law enforcement. That makes the public-interest question less about whether any action exists and more about whether it is enough to stop extortion from entrenching itself in schools.
Key details and figures
The key current allegation is that some principals are reportedly paying extortionists to protect school property from vandals and thieves, with some parents also being asked to contribute. That claim comes from Manuel’s on-the-record remarks carried by EWN and repeated elsewhere in South African media.
The strongest official data point in the background is WCED’s report that 36 burglary and vandalism incidents affected 32 Western Cape schools during the 2025/26 summer holiday period, despite security support at 441 schools.
The wider extortion environment in the province is also already well established in government reporting. The Western Cape anti-extortion summit in 2025 brought together provincial departments, the City of Cape Town, SAPS, business and civil-society stakeholders, and the government said extortion mafias were hitting sectors including construction, transport and hospitality.
Taken together, those details support a careful but clear conclusion. The current school story is not yet backed by a detailed police case list or a province-wide public dataset on school extortion. But it is grounded in named, on-the-record testimony from a national teacher body and sits inside a province that has already formally described extortion as organised, systemic and damaging to public services.
What happens next
The next step is likely to depend on whether education authorities, police and school communities treat the reports as a specific extortion problem rather than only a vandalism problem. If extortion is becoming embedded in school security decisions, then the response will have to go beyond repairing damage after the fact.
For now, the safest editorial conclusion is narrow and factual. The available public record supports a story that schools in the Western Cape are reportedly facing a growing extortion threat, with some principals said to be paying criminals for protection. It does not support a looser claim that an unnamed “new mafia” has formally taken over the province.
