During the 1980s, the world experienced a rapid expansion of organised crime and of transnational criminal activities. These activities were planned and executed by sophisticated criminal networks that considered the world as their global village and that therefore increasingly operated across international borders in the slipstream of globalisation. Their activities spread at a pace which outstripped the law enforcement agencies’ ability to contain them.

Technological developments, among them the information and communication revolution, facilitated this expansion. Political changes provided openings for criminals which had not existed previously. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, for example, led to a mushrooming of organised crime in Russia and Central Europe towards the end of the decade. The end of the Cold War, and the transformation of states from authoritarian systems towards democracy in different parts of the world, signalled a new era of open borders, massive migration, and the weakening of state structures which had previously maintained a semblance of law and order. Weakened states, whether in Central Europe, South America or in Southern Africa, provided ideal conditions in which organised crime could flourish. During that decade, organised crime was transformed from a domestic to an international phenomenon, and from a law and order problem to a national and international security threat.

Economic factors also played a role. The emergence of Nigerian criminal organisations, for example, is often traced to the collapse of oil prices in the early 1980s, forcing many educated and entrepreneurial Nigerians to find alternative sources of income.

While international developments were facilitating the expansion and growing sophistication of an international network of criminal organisations, the South Africa of the 1980s was epitomised by international isolation, political turmoil and by an inward-looking, authoritarian apartheid government. Borders were relatively well-controlled in order to prevent the insurgence of guerrillas. Tourists or foreign business people arrived in insignificant numbers as a result of the international trade sanctions and due to the country’s poor image. The various states of emergency and the widespread reliance on the military and specialised police task forces to clamp down on opposition political activities and political violence, had the effect of relegating the detective service of the police, as well as ordinary crime prevention, to the background. Under those circumstances, in which the government saw itself as facing a ‘total onslaught’, state resources were used to bolster the military and the security branch of the police rather than the ordinary uniformed police officers or detectives who were expected to fight the battle against crime. During the 1980s, therefore, organised crime was not a policing priority for the state. In fact, the concept of ‘organised crime’ as it is now understood, was unfamiliar to the police during the 1980s and formed no part of their plans or strategies. The words ‘organised crime’ did not become part of policing vocabulary in South Africa until 1991.

And yet, organised criminal groups were very active in the country during that period, and organised crime expanded significantly. The foundation for the rapid growth of organised crime in the 1990s was clearly laid during the 1980s. Not only did organised crime manifest itself within South Africa during the 1980s, a phenomenal expansion of cross-border crime between South African and its neighbouring states occurred. National and regional criminal networks were therefore in place, ready to capitalise on the conducive environment for criminal organisations which the political transition of the early 1990s produced.

Unlike the perceptions originating from popularised American models of the ‘Italian mafia’ groups, which presuppose a tightly knit, well-structured and disciplined criminal organisation headed by ‘Mr Big’, South Africa’s organised criminal organisations were generally characterised by the absence of rigid structures and by their reliance on networks of criminals to assist in achieving their objectives. South African crime syndicates appear to opt for loose and shifting alliances or associations with other criminal groups or individuals, rather than for tightly knit organisations, which rely solely on their own resources, to achieve their objectives. However, these were not matters with which the police or criminologists occupied themselves in the 1980s.

Towards the end of the 1980s, detectives were sounding warning signals about organised criminal groups and about the growing impact which syndicates were having on crime. Only in April 1991, were specific strategies formulated for the first time to counter the activities of organised criminal groups and did the words ‘organised crime’ become part of official police parlance. Until then, the impact of organised criminal groups, and their involvement in cross-border crime, had not been considered as a significant contributory factor to the rising crime rates in the country. No serious attention had been given to this issue until then, mainly because policing priorities related to matters of national security as identified by the securocrats of the government.

This, perhaps, partly explains why very little research has been conducted in South Africa into organised crime. Our understanding of the nature of organised crime, how its structures have developed during the past two decades and how the state responded, remains very limited. Initial research has focused on the present realities of organised crime and on the extent to which the state has the capacity to counter it. Factors which contributed to its rapid growth need to be identified and examined. This monograph will briefly refer to some of the earlier manifestations of criminal groupings in South Africa. It will assess the development and impact of organised criminal groups since 1980 and examine the state’s responses. By way of case studies, the structures of typical syndicates involved in organised crime will be examined. An attempt will therefore be made to develop a greater understanding of how organised criminal groups in South Africa are structured, how they operate and how they have changed or adapted in the new environment, if at all.

This monograph will be based mainly on primary research, with most of the information emanating from police sources and official documents. The fact that the names of the many police officers, who readily provided the information, are not mentioned, may place a question mark over the veracity of their version of developments for some readers. Most of the police officers prefer not to have their names mentioned and their preference has been respected. It needs to be stated, however, that from the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS)and the Head of the Detective Service downwards, doors were opened and full co-operation was readily provided.

This will be the first in a series of monographs on organised crime in South Africa which the Institute for Security Studies intends to publish during the next three years. This first, more general volume, will hopefully provide a basis for a better understanding of South African organised criminal groups. No attempt will be made to examine the nature and impact of internationally linked criminal groups active in South Africa, such as the Nigerian drug syndicates, the Russian mafia, South American drug cartels or Chinese triads. Future research will focus on more specific aspects of organised crime, including its international dimensions, perhaps culminating in proposals on how to counter the activities of organised criminal groups more effectively.