Are we really winning the war against lawlessness?

When the corruption perpetrated during the Jacob Zuma era was exposed, South Africans became irate and launched a full-scale war against corruption. Whether we are winning that war is another debate.

It was symptomatic of another problem. The actions of Government officials set in motion a series of events that made many people question whether we are living in a lawless state. There have been many examples of this; the murder of Brent Kebble, the murder of Babita Deokaran and the alleged mafia-styled syndicate that is running rampant within Eskom. The murder of Cloete and Thomas Murray is another example of one ghoulish fact; we are far from winning the war against the criminal element that has taken root in our country. I recently read an article by Pieter du Toit on News24 which discusses this in more detail.

Babita Deokaran’s death

When News24’s Jeff Wicks called through the news on Saturday afternoon, it was mind-numbing. The brazen murder of someone like Murray and his son is something that is reminiscent of Mexico, Venezuela, or Colombia. Not South Africa. During a journalism conference in Spain last year, editors of those countries spoke of hits and contracts on journalists and law enforcement officials as being a matter of regularity in Central and South America.

Now it’s happening here.

Du Toit wrote that the murder is reminiscent of Babita Deokaran’s violent death, a whistleblower in the Gauteng health department, who flagged alleged corruption worth almost a billion rand. She was also gunned down in her car, her body riddled with bullets. Her murderers were caught, but there has been no progress, as News24’s reporting has shown, in identifying the paymasters, the individuals who ordered the hit.

Murray’s role as an insolvency lawyer was to act on behalf of creditors, and sometimes the state, to recover assets that were the proceeds of crime. And he made a lot of enemies during that time because, as colleagues and operators in that world have told us, Murray “really went after the assets”. He wasn’t content to be strung along by criminals and shady characters. If the court found that assets should be seized or businesses wound up, Murray brooked no opposition.

Du Toit added that his brazen murder has now reverberated in legal circles. There aren’t many insolvency practitioners and curators with the backbone that Murray had. And after being cut down by gunfire on perhaps the busiest stretch of road in the country, in bright sunshine and in full view of the public on a random Saturday afternoon, it might well cause other professionals in the same line of work to think twice when taking on mafia dons and capture kings on behalf of creditors and the courts.

Emergence of a mafia state

Du Toit wrote that the evidence now increasingly points to the emergence of the mafia state in South Africa, an environment where established and violent criminal networks, deeply entrenched in society and the state, resort to contract killings safe in the knowledge that law enforcement has been so deeply compromised that consequences will be minimal. This mafia state is the product of a decade and more of impunity, where the rule of law has been consistently undermined by the political ruling class, and where the sharp end of law enforcement – the police, Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority – have been systematically hollowed out and neutered.

Du Toit added that the emergence of the mafia state, or a new form of capture by organised crime, if you will, is the single biggest threat to this country’s stability today. We’re being confronted by these networks on a daily basis, whether it is in relation to extraction from provincial governments or syndicates operating at metropolitan municipalities or in parastatals. And the amounts of money being moved, laundered or spent on cars and jewellery, and property are enormous.

It is clear that we’re not winning the war on crime, and specifically organised crime. According to the Institute for Security Studies, 86% of murder cases went unsolved last year, while a report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime found that contract killings – like the one taken out on the Murray’s and Deokaran – are on the rise.

Ineffective police service

Du Toit wrote that the police, with Bheki Cele as minister, remain horrendously ineffective and unable to both predict and prevent crime, as well solving it. Fannie Masemola, the national police commissioner, doesn’t even have security clearance because of personal debt problems. And the Crime Intelligence division has been all but destroyed over the last 15 years, thanks to politics and corruption.

Testifying before the Zondo Commission, former SA Revenue Service executive Johann van Loggerenberg described the chilling effect at SARS when they were starting to squeeze organised crime.

That’s what the mafias want. For people like the Murrays to back off – or be killed.

Du Toit added that it is an absolute dire situation the country finds itself in. This cannot be overstated. The murderers of Cloete and Thomas Murray know they’re in the clear, because they know the criminal justice system is broken.

Swim with the fishes

The golden thread between the Kebble, Deokaran and Murray murders is that all of these parties had significant information about deeply rooted corruption that would implicate South Africans with considerable Government influence.

I have always wondered about the fascination with the Mafia. Sure, the Godfather movies, Good Fellows, and the Sopranos are entertaining; and the level of influence that these people have on society can be appealing to some, but at what cost?

The only way to stop corruption is to expose it. The country cannot say that we are winning the war against corruption when those who are about to speak out against corruption are gunned down. It just makes those facing similar cases in the future very reluctant to come forward and expose what they have found. If corruption is the biggest challenge that needs to be addressed, we must protect those who want to speak out against it. Unfortunately, we are very far from achieving that.