PRETORIA, Gauteng — Organised crime is the single biggest threat to South Africa’s constitutional democracy, transnational crime expert Dr Mark Shaw testified before the Madlanga Commission on Wednesday. Shaw warned that the deep penetration of cartel networks into state structures is significantly reducing the country’s ability to respond to this crippling phenomenon, echoing identical concerns raised by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his recent State of the Nation address.
Shaw, the executive director of the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, expressed profound concern over the extent to which organised crime has infiltrated South Africa’s law enforcement agencies. He noted that senior officials have repeatedly been implicated as operatives for cartel members. Among those implicated in recent testimony are Sergeant Fannie Nkosi, Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, and former Hawks head Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya.
Lebeya faced intense scrutiny regarding his alleged involvement in aiding cartels during a legitimate raid at KT Molefe’s home on December 6, 2024, by reportedly deploying individuals to disrupt the operation.
According to Shaw, this systemic vulnerability is not a recent development but a symptom dating back to the country’s transition to democracy. He explained that South Africa’s criminal justice system was designed in the immediate aftermath of democracy to ensure that all citizens, who previously did not enjoy the protection of law enforcement, were included. Consequently, it was not structurally designed to confront or neutralize the sophisticated organised crime penetration processes it faces today.
A recurring theme during the proceedings has been the compromising of police action through informant relationships. Retired SAPS Major General and intelligence analyst Jeremy Vearey highlighted that when law enforcement relies on informants from within criminal syndicates, the dynamic often shifts, with the informant beginning to manage the police rather than the reverse.
Vearey noted that this dynamic violates National Instruction 2 of 2001, which governs the proper handling of informers. He explained that organised crime syndicates deliberately dangle information to create a relationship of dependency, aiming to direct or misdirect police action to protect their own interests. Without rigorous, prescript-driven training in informant management, law enforcement officials risk being co-opted and run by the very criminals they are tasked to investigate.
This challenge is not unique to South Africa. Vearey, alongside another General, represented the South African Police Service (SAPS) in 2018 at the National Conference of Interpol Gangs in Latin America, held in El Salvador. There, international heads of police forces shared identical concerns about how organised crime syndicates exploit informers and whistleblowers to compromise state action and derail investigations.
When organised crime successfully co-opts state institutions to this extent, the capability to fight them collapses entirely—a reality that experts warn is currently unfolding within South Africa’s justice system.
The Madlanga Commission has concluded its current sessions and will resume proceedings on the 15th of September.
