SA underworld economy becoming increasingly sophisticated and violent

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South Africa’s democracy is in peril unless organised crime can be urgently addressed.

This is the upshot of a damning report that was made public this week.

The 200-plus page report draws on research by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC).

The strategic organised crime risk assessment says seemingly unconnected serious crimes – including illicit drugs, illegal firearms, wildlife and smuggling, extortion, kidnapping, robbery, and assassinations – are indicative of a “dark web”.

If this linked mafia-like system is not properly grasped by law enforcement agencies the country will suffer devastating consequences.

The effects will be felt from central government to rural municipalities, from companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to spaza shops.

“Below the surface, and often not immediately perceptible in each individual incident, is a dark web: a criminal ecosystem that links many of these countless criminal acts, which need to be understood as the manifestations of an escalating set of problems,” said GI-TOC’s director Mark Shaw.

This was driven by South Africa’s increasingly sophisticated, violent underworld economy.

Overlaying illicit economies involving multiple actors were evolving fast and a strategic understanding of them was vital.

GI-TOC’s assessment includes detailed profiles of 15 illicit markets in South Africa that were taking a “devastating” toll on the country’s political, social and economic fabric.

The 15 markets include illicit drugs, illegal firearms, wildlife and smuggling, extortion, kidnapping, robbery, and assassinations.

GI-TOC publicly released the report in Pretoria after separate briefings with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, cabinet ministers, diplomats and Business Unity South Africa.

The report notes a dramatic increase in murders in South Africa after 2011. The murder rate in the build up to the 1994 democratic elections was about 70 per 100 000. This dropped to about 30 and then “surged steadily upwards” with an almost 40% increase, double that of other developing countries like Mexico.

Since 1994, organised crime has exploited both the shortcomings of the political transition and opportunities afforded by globalisation.

Said Shaw: “Organised crime is an existential threat to South Africa’s democratic institutions, economy and people. It often lies behind and connects numerous seemingly disparate criminal incidents we see occurring every day.

“The recent mass shootings in taverns across the country or the horrific gang rapes in an illegal mining community; continual outbreaks of violence at taxi ranks; shop owners threatened at gunpoint; the assassinations of whistle-blowers, police detectives, gangsters and game rangers: these incidents are not as random or isolated as they may at first appear.” 

Shaw said organised crime was not a priority for law enforcement agencies. An effective response started with that acknowledgement.

At the launch, Prof Sandy Africa of the University of Pretoria described GI-TOC’s assessment as “frightening”.

Shaw said it was a call to action. 

Lam Tak-fai, the Acting Head of Ports and Maritime Command stands with Rhinoceros horns in Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise Department Offices on November 15, 2011.. AFP PHOTO / AARON TAM (Photo by aaron tam / AFP)

He said the challenge was not insurmountable, but unless there was an urgently formulated strategic response to organised crime the future would become more unstable.

The country’s infrastructure was suffering from sustained and organised theft, mainly of copper, on an industrial scale, affecting transport, energy, and communications. 

The country was witnessing “a dramatic expansion, diversification and legitimisation of extortion across a broad spectrum of society” that undermined the rule of law; challenged the role of state as security provider; and impacted economic growth by deterring investment.

Organised crime preyed on critical services and extended to illegal mining and state corruption that affected a host of services from health to public transport.

Of the 15 illicit markets assessed, 10 were increasing.

“Organised crime is highly connected, diverse, entrepreneurial and violent.”

State corruption, a component of most illicit markets, embedded crime within state institutions, most notably law enforcement agencies. Bribes bought protection and the impunity helped build alternative forms of legitimacy and governance.

The GI-TOC report said in the case of the illicit drug markets, gangs forged close ties with their host communities, either by exerting or threatening violence, or by building legitimacy through supplying food, money and services. 

The report analyses the “commodification” of violence. For example, the taxi industry maintains a pool of hitmen, a resource used to project violence beyond the taxi industry like contract hits against political rivals. 

This led to an integration of the “under and upper worlds” and normalised violence as “just another means of doing business”.

Vusi Pikoli, the country’s former head of the National Prosecution Authority, is a member of the GI-TOC board.

He led the prosecution of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi and said the top cop was able to operate because of a “culture of silence” in SAPS cultivated by “people who benefited from keeping quiet”.

State failures deepened mistrust of the government and allowed violence to become embedded.

The country had a “serious problem,” Pikoli said.

“We’ve got to admit it. The report should shake us out of our lethargy… to have honest conversations that allow us to confront our failures.”

Shaw said policy makers needed to accept the real threat of organised crime and act swiftly to deal with its evolving complexity because it impacted on the lives of millions and the country’s economic health and democratic integrity. 

While the state had failed to keep pace with organised crime, dealing with it was not an insurmountable challenge.

Shaw said the problem can be tackled. 

“With the right leadership, long-term strategic vision and resources, and with a systemic institutional overhaul of its crime-fighting agencies, South Africa can and will defeat organised crime.”

Only by acting in unity and with the same sense of strategic purpose that guided the country through the transition to democracy could South Africa counter the threat.

Shaw said the current response to organised crime was “reactive, random and dispersed”. 

It needed a broad alignment of players to develop a clear and coherent strategy and set priorities. 

South African resilience was tested by the ruthlessness of criminals and the state had to replace short term tactics with long-term strategy. This demanded independent law enforcement that was not “enmeshed in the institutional tangle” that scuppered previous attempts to deal with organised crime.

“Tackling this threat requires a high-quality sense-making apparatus, but there is consensus that the skills needed to conduct intelligence, investigations or operations against organised crime and high-level corruption are near-absent in the existing security agencies.”

GI-TOC’s report suggests the state response to organised crime includes communicating the harm it does to society. This, in conjunction with police statistics, could provide a measure of its real impact.

“A fall in the rate of cancelled trains, for example, may better reflect crime-fighting successes than the number of prosecuted copper thieves, as it indicates broader momentum in the fight against this illicit market.”

In the private sector and civil society there was a reservoir of expertise to bolster the state’s response to organised crime. 

But to harness this the government had to meaningfully arrest corruption because the trust deficit provided fertile ground for organised crime to exploit the gaps between citizen and state.