State of contradictions: crime crackdowns versus corruption

In 2024, court cases and crime-fighting tactics are set to highlight how contradictory SA’S government is – with aspects of state corruption driving crime, and other parts of the state trying to fight it. By

Tugs of war in South Africa’s political circles will become more pronounced in 2024 because it is a critical election year. And certain crime-fighting strategies, as well as developing court cases, are set to highlight the push against, and pull towards, state corruption.

So, while politicians campaigning for votes reference how to tackle different types of criminality, more details may emerge about suspected, real or maliciously concocted corruption claims linked to figures in government offices, or those trying to occupy those spaces.

Politics and cash

Politics in 2024 will indeed cause more focus to be placed on leaders in law enforcement, including the likes of Police Minister Bheki Cele, who has faced heavy criticism in terms of policing failures, and whether they deserve to be in those positions.

This will happen as budget cuts and pursestring tightening continue affecting key organs of state, including the South African Police Service (SAPS) and National Prosecuting Authority.

The next year will therefore be a real crunch time, especially because the SAPS already has various understaffed divisions, including its detectives, cybercrime component, the flying squad, K9 dog team and anti-gang unit.

Crime versus capture

While dealing with those shortages, the SAPS has also been grappling with an array of lawlessness.

This includes countrywide murders with varying motives, kidnappings with targets ranging from business owners to students, and extortion, which has become a deadly problem stretching from railway tracks to construction sites.

Wildlife crimes – the poaching of animals and rare plants – also persist.

Different policing crackdowns were rolled out during the past year and, in an attempt to try to give cops an aerial vantage point in various operations, drones were used.

State acts that will bolster safety in the country are a necessary step towards security. However, while honest cops and law-enforcing investigators are trying to do their work, crime is already embedded in and around the state itself.

In November 2023 it was reported that nearly 5,500 police officers had been charged for a variety of crimes since 2019.

Another situation pointing to embedded state crime was that, in the previous month President Cyril Ramaphosa extended the deployment of 880 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members to Eskom power stations.

The soldiers, who bolster police work, are meant to protect power stations until at least March 2024, when Ramaphosa may request that they remain for a further period.

Power stations and mines

The SANDF deployment is, in a sense, ironic because the Presidency previously said it was necessitated by “the growing threat of sabotage, theft, vandalism and corruption at Eskom power stations”.

This means, especially in terms of corruption in Eskom, that the state is deploying elements of the state to try to prevent state-facilitated crime.

Load shedding, meanwhile, a by-product of State Capture linked to Eskom, persists.

Criminals are also squeezing South Africa’s mining sector, and more resources to counter their grip are being channelled that way. Ramaphosa, in November 2023, confirmed that 3,300 soldiers had been deployed for six months to try to curb – and prevent – illegal mining.

This is where crime branches out and hints at what law enforcement in South Africa is up against.

Ramaphosa said: “Illegal mining is linked to other crimes such as money laundering, bribery and corruption, illicit financial flows, human and weapons trafficking, and other forms of organised crime.”

Illicit gold mining and dealing in South Africa, for example, ties into transnational crime.

Daily Maverick has previously detailed how this country is a key transit point for gold smugglers wanting to channel the precious metal to and from Dubai.

Transnational drug trafficking

The Irish-origin Kinahan cartel, suspected of laundering income from illicit gold sales, some of it linked to this country, are believed to use that dirty money to conduct other crimes, like narcotrafficking.

This is another massive problem the SAPS is trying to deal with.

Throughout the year, several drug crackdowns in this country as well as others, including Brazil and Australia, again emphasised how South Africa plays a pivotal role in transnational trafficking.

As Daily Maverick has reported, internationally operating traffickers seem to favour the Port of Durban (where a backlog of containers is causing a major snarl-up) through which to operate.

Towards the end of 2023, two cocaine interceptions worth R150-million, linked to a vessel that arrived there from Brazil, were made.

This shows that, even while some cops are suspected of being complicit in drug trafficking, police are trying to crack down on cartels. Around the time of the R150-million cocaine interceptions, National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola warned: “Intelligence is at work, our members are on the ground throughout the country, clamping down on all forms of criminality.

“Day in, day out we continue to confiscate large quantities of these drugs. SA is not a playground for criminals.”

Cross-country killings

However, Masemola’s words, when viewed in conjunction with the expanse of organised crime in the country, along with criminality in the state, including in the police service, come across as somewhat hollow.

Other incidents that played out in 2023 suggest that some criminals do indeed view South Africa as “a playground” and SAPS officers will again have their hands full in 2024 trying to counter that image. An example pointing to this country being an international criminal haven is the case of Krasimir Kamenov.

Kamenov, his wife Gergana, and two of their employees were fatally shot at a home in the upmarket Cape Town suburb of Constantia on 25 May.

The four were originally from Bulgaria. The assassinations highlighted how elements of Bulgarian – and global – organised crime were at play in this country.

At the time of Kamenov’s killing, he was wanted by Bulgaria in connection with a threat, murder and extortion.

His name also cropped up in Bulgarian political circles with accusations along the lines of his being involved in State Capture-style plots.

By December no arrests had been made in connection with the assassinations.

Another murder that pointed to international organised crime links in South Africa was that of Shafiq Naser, originally from Israel. Gunmen on a motorbike ambushed him while he was driving in the Cape Town suburb of Milnerton.

Naser was involved in the luxury vehicle and property

Cape Town.

A year earlier his cousin Abdel Fattah Nassar, who had suspected links to organised

Illegal mining is linked to other crimes such as money

laundering, bribery and corruption, illicit financial flows, human and weapons trafficking, and other forms

of organised crime

construction, industries in