Organised crime has undergone an ”explosive” increase in South Africa since 1994, the United Nations regional office for drugs and crime in southern Africa says in a report released on Tuesday.
”Due to its special geo-political position and economic opportunities, South Africa is the regional hub for organised crime, including drug trafficking,” states the report, entitled ”Strategic Programme Framework on Crime and Drugs for Southern Africa 2003”.
”The increase in organised crime activities in South Africa has been accentuated since 1994 by the ending of its international isolation, its much freer and larger international trade and commerce, and its well developed financial, communication and transportation systems.”
According to the SA Police Service, there are 238 criminal syndicates operating in the country and across its borders.
The report says: ”Often complicit in high-level official corruption, more extensive and enduring criminal networks appear to be behind the rise in the laundering of illicit drug proceeds, and they help drive the trafficking in firearms, stolen vehicles and endangered species.”
Corruption in both the official and private sectors is also perceived to have increased since 1994, it is stated in the country profile of South Africa.
The same perception applies to the region, it says, but adds: ”SADC as a region fares much better than Africa as a whole.”
Business leaders are considered corrupt by more than half of those surveyed in the region, according to the document.
”Corruption appears to be of particular concern in countries that are undergoing or have undergone the devastation of civil war (Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique), but corruption of various levels of seriousness is perceived as quite widespread in all SADC countries.”
However, research has shown a huge gap between perceived levels and actual experience of corruption. Almost all the countries in the region are taking steps to combat corruption, the report says.
”New patterns of organised crime, drug trafficking and terrorist financing have place the issue of money laundering firmly on the agenda of a number of key SADC states,” it says.
”Drug money, for example, is reported to be moving into property and construction in Mozambique, and the case may well be similar in South Africa.
”The laundering of drug proceeds through the international banking system is rendered easier by the inadequate level of preparation and countermeasures on the part of states only recently exposed to the activities of criminal cartels.”
The situation seems critical in the short term for South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Mozambique, the document says.
Rob Boone, head of the UN’s regional office for crime and drugs, said the region had high rates of serious and violent crime, and these were on the increase.
The report says: ”Crimes related to violence against women, especially but not only rape, constitute a disturbing phenomenon that appears to be endemic in the region.”
All countries with figures available report high, and in most cases increasing rates of such violence, it says.
”The situation appears at its worst in South Africa, with the reported rates of rape among the single highest in the world.”
At least four countries, including South Africa, have indicated a problem of trafficking in human body parts, the report says.
”Illegal smuggling of migrants appear to be a huge problem in the region, particularly from countries devastated by political and social unrest and poverty, including famine. South Africa is a hub both as a destination and transit country.”
Transnational organised crime, both foreign and indigenous-based, is deeply involved in human trafficking and smuggling, according to the document.
”Throughout the region, there is an absolute lack of legislation and law enforcement capacity to deal with these problems.”
Boone noted that only about half of the 11 countries included in the report had anti-crime strategies. He also referred to poor data collection and analysis.
Senior crime expert Ugi Zvekic said South Africa’s police statistics were the most up to date. But its prosecution and court statistics were ”not much better than those of the other countries”. – Sapa