Organized crime in South Africa threatens the economy, its people and the democratic institutions themselves.

Every day we see a number of different and seemingly unconnected criminal incidents taking place - from assassinations to gang rapes in an illegal mining community; and from the violence of the taxi industry to organized cooper theft.

But what lies behind all of these actions is a dark web, a criminal ecosystem driven by an increasingly violent South African underworld.

In this episode Steph Musho talks to Julian Rademeyer, the Director of the East and Southern African Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime about a new and substantial report called 'Assessing South Africa's organized crime risk'.

The Cape Flats in South Africa is made up of 20 suburbs make up the Cape Flats; populated predominantly by black and coloured communities, a term used to describe those of mixed-heritage. Each suburb is marked by poverty, crime, drug abuse, gangsterism and violence.

In this, Lindy Mtongana's final episode, she looks at the Grassy Park where a slew of recent killings has exposed the devastating consequences of territorial battles among the Cape’s most dangerous gangs.

Presenter: Lindy Mtongana

Guests:

Julia Stanyard, Senior Analyst, Observatory for East and Southern Africa, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Lyndsay Connelly, a community organiser in Grassy Park.

Additional Links:

Civil Society Observatory of Illicit Economies in Eastern and Southern Africa - Risk Bulletin - Issue 25

The Global Organized Crime Index - South Africa

Global Assassination Monitor

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

In this episode Lindy delves into the murky world of political assassinations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Where, according to the GI-TOC's assassination monitor data, for three of the last six years, political assassinations were higher than all other South African provinces combined.

Presenter: Lindy Mtongana

Speaker(s):

Greg Arde, Journalist and Author of War Party: How the ANC’s political killings are breaking South Africa

Chwayita Thobela, Analyst, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Thapelo Mohale, a shack dweller, and the secretary general of Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Additional Reading:

Eastern and Southern Africa Observatory - Risk Bulletin

The rule of the gun: Hits and assassinations in South Africa, 2000-2017

Give Us More Guns: How South Africa’s gangs were armed

Gun licenses for sale: South Africa's failing firearms control

Murder by Contract: Targeted killings in eastern and southern Africa

The Global Organized Crime Index - South Africa Profile

Global Assassination Monitor

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime