The South African Police Service (Saps) is burdened with the task of dealing with criminal syndicates operating in the country, with some using spaza shops as fronts, and with police officers who assist them in getting away with their crimes.
On Wednesday, the top Saps management briefed the portfolio committee on police on the interventions to combat gang-related violence.
What the Saps emphasised is that gang violence should not be treated as a standalone criminal activity, but as part of a broader organised crime environment.
“Gang-related violence intersects with a range of serious crimes that include drugs, firearm extortion, transport-related violence, hijacking and organised crime syndicates,” Major-General Leon Rabie told the committee.
“The key implication is that criminal networks diversify and operate across multiple crime types at the same time. In provinces such as the Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, we see gangs evolving into structured criminal organised crime enterprises with both national and international linkages.
“This relationship between gangs and organised crime syndicates increases their access to resources, firearms and logistical capacity, leading to more coordinated and more violent activity.”
What the police are concerned about is the corporatisation of gangs operating within organised syndicates and establishing parallel criminal economies.
“An emerging trend highlighted here is the utilisation of gangs for contract killings in sectors such as taxis, construction and politics.”
Police plan to combat gang violence
According to the Saps, a comprehensive plan to combat these criminal activities is under consideration for the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and the Western Cape and includes personnel, asset accommodation, funding and training.
A dedicated skills enhancement plan has also been improved to ensure that members deployed to the units operating in these areas have the specialised competencies required. The physical resourcing plan provides for mobility, technology accommodation, and essential equipment aligned with intelligence-led operations, Saps told parliament.
An estimated cost of R700 million is being considered for these operations, with implementation to be phased based on threat levels and available funding.
“The operational mandate of the gang units, the anti-gang units operate across two complementary functions: investigation capabilities and prevention capabilities. On the detective side or the investigative side, the focus is on investigating gang structures, leadership, economic activities and serious violent crimes,” said Rabie.
While the Saps targets multi-agency cooperation to combat these crimes, it also emphasised the need for community partnerships.
“Community partnerships are key to building trust, to address the root causes of gang involvement, and to enhance the flow of actionable information that can be used for proactive and reactive purposes.”
Mkhwanazi on corruption
While the Saps presented a comprehensive plan to combat gang violence, parliamentarians shared concerns about the conviction rate, as these criminals always find their way back to the streets.
Among the reasons criminals are not convicted was the mishandling of evidence by police, with KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi highlighting that some of it is deliberate.
Mkhwanazi highlighted that all police officials have been trained in handling evidence.
“We have a national instruction that governs exhibit management in the police, the directives in terms of how we collect, how we package, how we transport, how we save, store, and how we dispose of the exhibit is prescribed in National Instruction 8 of 2017, and that is communicated to everyone,” explained Mkhwanazi.
“What we see happening, Honourable Chair and members, is just criminal act from within, as embarrassing as it is, but I’m sure Honourable members, as you’re going to be catching up on the Madlanga Commission on the testimony that the Major-General Finn from DPCI is presenting right now, from yesterday, is indicating weaknesses in the system and how officials within the police have manipulated the handling of exhibits in the South African Police Service at the highest level, and there are many of those.”
Mkhwanazi highlighted a recent case in KZN, in which a district commissioner was suspended after a large amount of money was lost from the storage under their supervision. Two more members were dismissed in the same case.
Coordination of police operations
Mkhwanazi further highlighted the Saps plan to rope in other law enforcement agencies to combat organised crime.
“What we are trying to do is to put our resources together, come up with this model that we want to adopt in the South African Police Service, and bring the NPA and all the other stakeholders on board so that we all can then understand how we should be fighting this going forward,” said Mkhwanazi.
“What we would like to see, Honourable Chair and members, which unfortunately doesn’t happen, is a coordination between our work and NPA, similar to how IDAC operates. IDAC has the power to direct the prosecution team, which speeds up decision-making.
“But for the South African Police Service in the bigger part of our country, we have to engage with the NPA, and the NPA are guided by their own policy on prosecution. So there are some challenges in some instances when you have to deal with certain matters at different levels.
“So we’re trying to find a better working method to speed up the process involving Saps, so that we can be able to tackle these things with speed.”
Spaza shops
Mkhwanazi further confirmed speculation that spaza shops are a front for criminals to operate their real businesses.
“We’ve seen a lot of these gangs that are operating in spaza shops. Honourable members, we might see this noise of spaza shops in our country. The reality is, it’s not because they’re making money out of the spaza shops. It’s another method of justifying the means of dealing with other illicit activities they’re busy with,” explained Mkhwanazi.
“So the selling of a bread at a price less than what you buy from another shop does not justify making a profit. We’re going to do a lot of analysis on them.”
