Date: 07/11/2003
Source: Department of Correctional Services
Title: Skosana: Canadian Congress on Criminal Justice
PRESENTATION BY THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MR BEN M SKOSANA, MP, ON DRUGS AND CRIME: A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE AT THE 29TH CANADIAN CONGRESS ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Vancouver, Canada, 5 - 8 November 2003
INTRODUCTION
Researchers agree that the drugs-crime nexus is too complex a phenomenon to infer linear causality and ascribe causal priority to either drug use or criminal activity. On the other hand data consistently show that there is a strong correlation between drug use and criminal behaviour and that increases in drug use are related to increases in crime.
The Interpol African Assessment 2003 document states that criminal activity in Africa has taken on an increasingly transnational character. Serious and organised crime ignores national boundaries in pursuit of profitable illicit activities.
This transnational character has been highlighted again by an article in the South African newspaper "The Star" of 15 October 2003 when it reported: "Hit men force successful SA drug buster into hiding". This article alleged that six South Americans were in South Africa to assassinate Divisional Commissioner Raymond Lalla. The hit was apparently ordered by the world's largest cocaine cartel that is based in Columbia and Venezuela. This article indicates the extent to which drug dealers will go to expand their narcotics business in South Africa.
During the period of apartheid, South Africa has been the origin, transit point, or terminus of many major smuggling routes. In the post-apartheid era, South Africa's transition to democracy and its integration into the world economy have been accompanied by the increased use of its territory for the transshipment of contraband of all types, in particular narcotics. Narcotics trafficking is very profitable for organised crime syndicates, and they have become heavily involved in stealing vehicles and trading them across South Africa's land borders for narcotics.
Research has shown that the smuggling of mandrax (methaqualone), primarily from India but also from China and other sources, is the single most important money-earner for indigenous South African organised crime groups.
A study conducted by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in 1997 corroborates this phenomenon when it found 192 indigenous organised criminal gangs active in all of South Africa. Ninety-two of these gangs were primarily focused on the international smuggling of narcotics, with mandrax the leading drug. In addition to this, statistics from the SAPS indicate that there was a 16,6% increase in drug-related crime in South Africa for the period 1994 to 2002.
While much criminal activity is restricted in its impact to South Africa, an important share of all crime has an impact on the region and on the rest of the world.
This paper seeks to contribute to the existing knowledge base on substance addiction focusing on the relationship between drugs and crime by reporting on the South African situation in this regard and highlighting the challenges that this brings to the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) as the end recipient in the South African criminal justice system.
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF SOUTH AFRICA
According to the latest available Census Report on South Africa (October 2001):
* There are 44,8 million people in South Africa
* The province with the largest population was KwaZulu-Natal (9,4 million), followed by Gauteng (8,8 million)
* The province with the smallest population was the Northern Cape (0,8 million)
* Four out of five South Africans (79%) were black Africans
* In the country as a whole, and in all provinces except Gauteng, there was a larger proportion of females than males, for example 55% of the population living in Limpopo were female
* The percentage of the population aged 0 to 14 decreased from 34,3% in 1996 to 32,1% in 2001
* The percentage of the population 65 years and older increased from 4,8% in 1996 to 4,9% in 2001
* One in three South Africans aged 20 and older had not completed primary school or had no schooling at all. More than three in ten of those aged 20 and above had started but not completed secondary education. Eighteen per cent had no formal education
* Five per cent of the population were classified by respondents as having a serious disability, preventing full participation in life activities, for example, in the educational, work or social spheres
* The unemployment rate was 29,5% for the country as a whole in September 2001, with African women showing the highest level of unemployment.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
The nature and extent of drug abuse in South Africa has been in a state of flux over the last several decades. The introduction of mandrax in the 1970s and the creation of the 'white pipe' means of smoking the drug shortly thereafter, changed forever the way many South Africans chose to get high. But while members of all the country's ethnic groups became involved with the drug, it became especially entrenched in coloured and Indian communities. This 'ethnic segmentation' of the country's drug cultures was reinforced by apartheid segregation, and similar associations are found with other substances.
The production and manufacturing of illicit substances, mainly mandrax, has been underway in South Africa since at least the 1980s. Although the bulk of this drug appears to be imported, the SAPS has reported the detection of mandrax manufacturing facilities every year since 1987, with a high of eight such laboratories found and dismantled during 2002.
It is possible that energetic police action in source countries, India in particular, has been responsible for the increasing relocation of mandrax manufacturing to Southern Africa itself.
Over most of the last decade, two distinct trends can be identified with regard to drug trafficking. First, there had been a gradual decline in drug-related cases followed by an upsurge since 1998. Drug-related arrests had declined from a peak of over 47,000 in 1994 to 40,000 in 1998. In 2001, 49,323 such arrests were made. Second, much of the thrust of law enforcement efforts have shifted from the interdiction of cannabis to increasing arrests in connection with mandrax and other more dependence producing drugs.
While the bulk of drug-related arrests still involve herbal cannabis and mandrax (the latter involving around 20% of the cases), there has been a marked increase in arrests involving cocaine (about 5%), and since 1997 also ecstasy. For ecstasy, arrests climbed from nil to almost 350 in the year 2000. Although absolute numbers arrested in connection with heroin remain low, their incidence has increased eight-fold since the mid-1990s.
In terms of consumption and demand, cannabis and mandrax remain the primary and secondary illicit drugs of abuse. Alcohol abuse is historically heavy and a major factor in both health- and crime-related social pathologies.
According to a survey of drug and alcohol use among primary school children in the Cape Town metropolitan area in 2002, one-fifth of primary school children have tried drugs, and the average age of first using drugs is 12 years. The same survey shows that in high schools, 45% have tried any drug, and 32% use drugs. Further, the study compared recent risk behaviour patterns among Grade 8 and 11 students with that of their counterparts in 1990. While both sets of students exhibit rates of cigarette and alcohol use, which are fairly constant, rates of cannabis use have almost doubled in the intervening period. Since 2000, heroin use has increased significantly in major urban areas, particularly in Gauteng and Cape Town.
Just under 10 per cent of patients in treatment state heroin as their primary or secondary drug of abuse. In 2002, most heroin was smoked ("chasing the dragon"), but between one-third and one-half of patients with heroin as their primary drug of abuse in Cape Town and Gauteng report some injecting use. The second half of 2001 also witnessed the appearance of heroin users among the impoverished black or African communities in South Africa's urban areas. One risk associated with injecting heroin is the spread of HIV/AIDS. Ongoing research in South Africa suggests that drug use is associated indirectly with HIV transmission via risky sexual behaviour. It also shows that compared with non-drug users, drug users are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors such as sex with multiple sex partners and unprotected sex.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ITS RELATION TO CRIME PERPETRATION
4.1 Crime trends in South Africa
Organised crime has undergone an explosive increase in South Africa since 1994. It should not, however, be forgotten that criminal gangs and the related prison gangs have long been a feature of South African life, especially in the greater Cape Town area, and they have always played a role in the cannabis and mandrax trade.
What has changed since 1994 is the increasing internationalisation of the participants and the involvement of organised groups leading to steeply higher rates of specific crimes such as motor vehicle theft and trafficking of hard drugs by specific foreign national groups.
Cross border crime has proliferated and become increasingly sophisticated, with a kind of continuous arms race between law enforcement agencies and the criminal syndicates themselves.
The most recent data from the SAPS put the figure of known organised crime groups at 238 with a total of 3,845 individuals involved.
The police rank the top ten organised crime threats as drug trafficking, motor vehicle theft, armed robbery, fraud, car hijacking, corruption, illegal weapons and ammunition trafficking, other theft-related crime, illicit diamond and gold trafficking, and murder-related crime.
Money laundering is likely to be on the increase in South Africa given the country's sophisticated but relatively unprotected banking and financial sectors plus the magnitude of the local crime and drug networks. No figures are available, nor have any prosecutions for money laundering been launched. However, the South African Reserve Bank has estimated that drug money flows in the last few years have been large enough to counter the bank's own monetary actions in open market operations.
4.2 Relationship between crime and drugs
There are at least three ways drugs can effect crime:
* People on drugs, just like people on alcohol, act out in ways they would not ordinarily behave. Some drugs distort perceptions, some impact mood, and most 'dis-inhibit' in some sense of the word. While much is made of those freak incidents in which murder is committed by people too deep in hallucinations to appreciate the nature of their acts, this is hardly the norm. Far more common is the violence that comes from that little push a chemical can give towards acting on impulses that would otherwise be ignored. Alcohol has been used for years to provide both the excuse and the recklessness to perform acts most people in their right minds would not do, like robbing a liquor store. Drugs can be used in very much the same way, if one prefers to smoke, snort, or inject one's Dutch courage.
* Being illegal, the retail price of drugs far exceeds their production costs. Prohibition creates a very lucrative market for those willing to chance incarceration. This group generally includes those who are otherwise criminally inclined, including violent offenders. Even well established, mainstream markets have their frictions, and legal commerce relies heavily on the dispute resolution mechanisms of the state's courts. These, of course, are not available when peddling drugs, and violence is often required to sort out business disagreements.
* Some drugs are highly associated with drug dependency or addiction. This means that some users become quite convinced that they cannot live without them. Feeding this acquired imperative requires money, and being dependent on drugs can make finding the time to hold down a job quite difficult. The fact that they are illegal aggravates this dilemma, as it pushes up the price and ensures that drugs can only be purchased from criminals. The need for large amounts of instant cash without having to work a regular job tends to lead women into prostitution and fraud, while it tends to lead men into more direct forms of acquisitive crime. As the urgency of addiction increases, these crimes can often become violent.
Research in South Africa released in 2002 has confirmed a high positive correlation between drug use and other crimes.
In 1996, the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) Centre for Alcohol/Drug-related Research was commissioned by the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCO) to study the relationship between the level of drug/alcohol intake and crime in order to provide a detailed information base for rational and cost-effective prevention of the drug-crime problem.
It was decided to focus the research on offenders in South African prisons and on probation. A total of 1 604 male prisoners and sentenced men on probation were interviewed on their drug intake and criminal activities before their arrest for the offence for which they were serving a sentence.
The following findings were concluded:
* Drug intake tended to precede first involvement with criminal activities
* The use of dagga (marijuana, cannabis) tended to precede the use of alcohol, which in turn led to illicit drug taking and the latter concurrently led to involvement in criminal activities
* Taking drugs immediately before or at the time of committing an offence was general
* Rape and housebreaking/burglary were all associated with drinking, especially group drinking and drinking in public places
* Property crimes were associated with the smoking of dagga in groups.
Efforts at curbing drug-related crime will have to be part and parcel of a comprehensive initiative in which agencies in criminal justice, education, labour and industry work in close collaboration with one another.
A GOVERNMENT-WIDE RESPONSE TO DRUG ABUSE AND CRIME
The new democratic Cabinet of South Africa has structured itself and its organs on the basis that government departments cannot function in isolation from one another or from society at large. It has established various structures that are aimed at improving co-ordination between the various departments and sectors.
In particular, it has structured itself into six Cabinet Committees, which are then supported by six Cluster Committees that function at the Director-General level. The six Cabinet Committees are:
* Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS)
* Social Transformation Sector
* Economic Sector
* Investment Sector
* Governance and Administration
* International Relations, Peace and Security (IRPS).
The following are some of the initiatives from the South African Government in dealing with drugs and crime:
* The National Crime Prevention Strategy is a long-term programme aimed at creating conditions in which the opportunities and motivation for crime will be reduced, and transform the capacity of the criminal justice system.
* The National Master Plan aims to build a drug-free society to make a contribution to combating the global problem of substance abuse.
* The Central Drug Authority oversees and monitors the implementation of the Master Plan and also engages in coordinating counter narcotics program, acting as an authoritative advisor to Government and initiating measures to combat drug abuse.
* The South African Narcotics Bureau (SANAB) is a specialised unit within the SAPS and deals specifically with the smuggling of narcotics. Since 2001, SANAB and the South African Customs Service have been successful in and continue to make seizures of cocaine and increasingly, heroin, arriving in South Africa at international airports and harbours as well as to a lesser extent at border crossings.
* Social Cluster Task Team on Social Cohesion and Social Justice: A task team within the cluster was established to come up with programmes that seek to address issues relating to social justice and cohesion in an integrated manner. During January 2003 the priorities of the Social Cluster, with particular reference to Social Justice and Cohesion, were identified among others as follows:
o The development and implementation of an intensive educational awareness campaign in the nodes and educational institutions around substance abuse
o Consolidation of prisoner rehabilitation programmes
o Promotion of efforts and programmes around issues of moral regeneration.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE: CORRECTIONAL SERVICES SOUTH AFRICA RESPONSE
A position paper for submission to the Commissioners of Correctional Services and Prisons of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, elaborated on the importance of integrated governance to promote models of criminal justice cooperation. It stated that effective social crime prevention must entail a close partnership between government departments and between Government and civil society in delivery on social justice and social cohesion.
The Department of Correctional Services is entrusted with the responsibility of detaining offenders, supervising community corrections sentences and parole in conditions that are consistent with human dignity and correcting their offending behaviour. This responsibility, which is a statutory mandate of the department, needs to be carried out in a manner that is integrated and coordinated and which ultimately results in the attainment of best results in the most efficient and effective way.
6.1 Collaboration with the community
The department acknowledges the important contribution that the community can make in effecting rehabilitation and is also mindful of the fact that the correcting of offending behaviour cannot be successful if this responsibility is borne by the Department of Correctional Services alone. Crime prevention, in which corrections has a central part, is a joint Government-community responsibility. This understanding informs the manner in which the department approaches its central task of rehabilitation or correction of offending behaviour.
The department has formed collaborative partnerships with community-based service providers in an effort to assist the substance-addicted offenders to jettison undesirable behaviour, adopt and embrace values that are acceptable in the society.
Two examples worth mentioning are:
* The South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCA) Ahanang Prison Project: Targeting youth awaiting trial offenders, sentenced youth offenders and youth offenders in the pre-release phase of incarceration, was formally launched in 2003 in six South African youth prisons. The Ahanang Prison Project offers HIV/AIDS and substance abuse information to incarcerated youth offenders in order to change negative attitudes and behaviour. The project runs over a year and impacts substance abuse lifestyles towards living a productive lifestyle among peer groups and society at large. Skills transfer for presentation of the programme by staff of the Department of Correctional Services forms part of the project. Selected staff members receive in-programme substance abuse training by SANCA during the project duration, enabling them to continue with substance abuse treatment after SANCA has withdrawn.
* Khulisa is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that contributes to the reduction of crime through the development and implementation of social crime prevention programmes. Khulisa works with youth offenders by offering a holistic crime prevention programme. Khulisa's work is unique because it is largely introduced and facilitated by former offenders and youth programme graduates. This approach has proved to be highly successful in promoting a positive influence on and a point of identification with, young people in many forums.
CONCLUSION
The Government of South Africa is committed in countering both domestic and transnational crime and combating the use of and the trafficking in illicit narcotics is an important component of its anticrime agenda.
South Africa, as part of the SADC, presents the region as a whole with perhaps its greatest opportunities but also its most intractable challenges in countering rising crime rates and drug abuse.
Given its economic dominance, its range of sophisticated resources (by regional standards) and its attraction for criminal enterprise of all kinds, any significant improvements on the crime and drugs front in this country could reverberate positively around the whole of Southern Africa.
The South African Government's commitment to create an effective legal and regulatory infrastructure to combat drug trafficking, and all other forms of organised crime, is evident in the agreements and treaties it has engaged in. South Africa is party to the 1996 SADC Protocol on Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking. South Africa is also a party to the 1961 United Nations (UN) Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the 1972 Protocol amending the Single Convention, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 UN Drug Convention.
In September 1999, the United States (US) and South Africa signed a mutual legal assistance treaty and a new extradition treaty to replace the existing 1947 extradition treaty. In December 2000, South Africa signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants.
Instruments of ratification were exchanged in 2001 to bring the bilateral treaties into force.
In September 2001, the US and South Africa also signed a letter of agreement on anticrime and counter narcotics assistance, which provides for US training and commodity assistance to several South African law enforcement agencies.
Apart from the need for South Africa to work jointly with the international community to develop an effective global strategy, the necessary policies and actions to combat drug trafficking and drug abuse will be developed through close partnership between government departments and between Government and civil society.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
7 November 2003
Source: Department of Correctional Services
Title: Skosana: Canadian Congress on Criminal Justice
PRESENTATION BY THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MR BEN M SKOSANA, MP, ON DRUGS AND CRIME: A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE AT THE 29TH CANADIAN CONGRESS ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Vancouver, Canada, 5 - 8 November 2003
INTRODUCTION
Researchers agree that the drugs-crime nexus is too complex a phenomenon to infer linear causality and ascribe causal priority to either drug use or criminal activity. On the other hand data consistently show that there is a strong correlation between drug use and criminal behaviour and that increases in drug use are related to increases in crime.
The Interpol African Assessment 2003 document states that criminal activity in Africa has taken on an increasingly transnational character. Serious and organised crime ignores national boundaries in pursuit of profitable illicit activities.
This transnational character has been highlighted again by an article in the South African newspaper "The Star" of 15 October 2003 when it reported: "Hit men force successful SA drug buster into hiding". This article alleged that six South Americans were in South Africa to assassinate Divisional Commissioner Raymond Lalla. The hit was apparently ordered by the world's largest cocaine cartel that is based in Columbia and Venezuela. This article indicates the extent to which drug dealers will go to expand their narcotics business in South Africa.
During the period of apartheid, South Africa has been the origin, transit point, or terminus of many major smuggling routes. In the post-apartheid era, South Africa's transition to democracy and its integration into the world economy have been accompanied by the increased use of its territory for the transshipment of contraband of all types, in particular narcotics. Narcotics trafficking is very profitable for organised crime syndicates, and they have become heavily involved in stealing vehicles and trading them across South Africa's land borders for narcotics.
Research has shown that the smuggling of mandrax (methaqualone), primarily from India but also from China and other sources, is the single most important money-earner for indigenous South African organised crime groups.
A study conducted by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in 1997 corroborates this phenomenon when it found 192 indigenous organised criminal gangs active in all of South Africa. Ninety-two of these gangs were primarily focused on the international smuggling of narcotics, with mandrax the leading drug. In addition to this, statistics from the SAPS indicate that there was a 16,6% increase in drug-related crime in South Africa for the period 1994 to 2002.
While much criminal activity is restricted in its impact to South Africa, an important share of all crime has an impact on the region and on the rest of the world.
This paper seeks to contribute to the existing knowledge base on substance addiction focusing on the relationship between drugs and crime by reporting on the South African situation in this regard and highlighting the challenges that this brings to the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) as the end recipient in the South African criminal justice system.
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF SOUTH AFRICA
According to the latest available Census Report on South Africa (October 2001):
* There are 44,8 million people in South Africa
* The province with the largest population was KwaZulu-Natal (9,4 million), followed by Gauteng (8,8 million)
* The province with the smallest population was the Northern Cape (0,8 million)
* Four out of five South Africans (79%) were black Africans
* In the country as a whole, and in all provinces except Gauteng, there was a larger proportion of females than males, for example 55% of the population living in Limpopo were female
* The percentage of the population aged 0 to 14 decreased from 34,3% in 1996 to 32,1% in 2001
* The percentage of the population 65 years and older increased from 4,8% in 1996 to 4,9% in 2001
* One in three South Africans aged 20 and older had not completed primary school or had no schooling at all. More than three in ten of those aged 20 and above had started but not completed secondary education. Eighteen per cent had no formal education
* Five per cent of the population were classified by respondents as having a serious disability, preventing full participation in life activities, for example, in the educational, work or social spheres
* The unemployment rate was 29,5% for the country as a whole in September 2001, with African women showing the highest level of unemployment.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
The nature and extent of drug abuse in South Africa has been in a state of flux over the last several decades. The introduction of mandrax in the 1970s and the creation of the 'white pipe' means of smoking the drug shortly thereafter, changed forever the way many South Africans chose to get high. But while members of all the country's ethnic groups became involved with the drug, it became especially entrenched in coloured and Indian communities. This 'ethnic segmentation' of the country's drug cultures was reinforced by apartheid segregation, and similar associations are found with other substances.
The production and manufacturing of illicit substances, mainly mandrax, has been underway in South Africa since at least the 1980s. Although the bulk of this drug appears to be imported, the SAPS has reported the detection of mandrax manufacturing facilities every year since 1987, with a high of eight such laboratories found and dismantled during 2002.
It is possible that energetic police action in source countries, India in particular, has been responsible for the increasing relocation of mandrax manufacturing to Southern Africa itself.
Over most of the last decade, two distinct trends can be identified with regard to drug trafficking. First, there had been a gradual decline in drug-related cases followed by an upsurge since 1998. Drug-related arrests had declined from a peak of over 47,000 in 1994 to 40,000 in 1998. In 2001, 49,323 such arrests were made. Second, much of the thrust of law enforcement efforts have shifted from the interdiction of cannabis to increasing arrests in connection with mandrax and other more dependence producing drugs.
While the bulk of drug-related arrests still involve herbal cannabis and mandrax (the latter involving around 20% of the cases), there has been a marked increase in arrests involving cocaine (about 5%), and since 1997 also ecstasy. For ecstasy, arrests climbed from nil to almost 350 in the year 2000. Although absolute numbers arrested in connection with heroin remain low, their incidence has increased eight-fold since the mid-1990s.
In terms of consumption and demand, cannabis and mandrax remain the primary and secondary illicit drugs of abuse. Alcohol abuse is historically heavy and a major factor in both health- and crime-related social pathologies.
According to a survey of drug and alcohol use among primary school children in the Cape Town metropolitan area in 2002, one-fifth of primary school children have tried drugs, and the average age of first using drugs is 12 years. The same survey shows that in high schools, 45% have tried any drug, and 32% use drugs. Further, the study compared recent risk behaviour patterns among Grade 8 and 11 students with that of their counterparts in 1990. While both sets of students exhibit rates of cigarette and alcohol use, which are fairly constant, rates of cannabis use have almost doubled in the intervening period. Since 2000, heroin use has increased significantly in major urban areas, particularly in Gauteng and Cape Town.
Just under 10 per cent of patients in treatment state heroin as their primary or secondary drug of abuse. In 2002, most heroin was smoked ("chasing the dragon"), but between one-third and one-half of patients with heroin as their primary drug of abuse in Cape Town and Gauteng report some injecting use. The second half of 2001 also witnessed the appearance of heroin users among the impoverished black or African communities in South Africa's urban areas. One risk associated with injecting heroin is the spread of HIV/AIDS. Ongoing research in South Africa suggests that drug use is associated indirectly with HIV transmission via risky sexual behaviour. It also shows that compared with non-drug users, drug users are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors such as sex with multiple sex partners and unprotected sex.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ITS RELATION TO CRIME PERPETRATION
4.1 Crime trends in South Africa
Organised crime has undergone an explosive increase in South Africa since 1994. It should not, however, be forgotten that criminal gangs and the related prison gangs have long been a feature of South African life, especially in the greater Cape Town area, and they have always played a role in the cannabis and mandrax trade.
What has changed since 1994 is the increasing internationalisation of the participants and the involvement of organised groups leading to steeply higher rates of specific crimes such as motor vehicle theft and trafficking of hard drugs by specific foreign national groups.
Cross border crime has proliferated and become increasingly sophisticated, with a kind of continuous arms race between law enforcement agencies and the criminal syndicates themselves.
The most recent data from the SAPS put the figure of known organised crime groups at 238 with a total of 3,845 individuals involved.
The police rank the top ten organised crime threats as drug trafficking, motor vehicle theft, armed robbery, fraud, car hijacking, corruption, illegal weapons and ammunition trafficking, other theft-related crime, illicit diamond and gold trafficking, and murder-related crime.
Money laundering is likely to be on the increase in South Africa given the country's sophisticated but relatively unprotected banking and financial sectors plus the magnitude of the local crime and drug networks. No figures are available, nor have any prosecutions for money laundering been launched. However, the South African Reserve Bank has estimated that drug money flows in the last few years have been large enough to counter the bank's own monetary actions in open market operations.
4.2 Relationship between crime and drugs
There are at least three ways drugs can effect crime:
* People on drugs, just like people on alcohol, act out in ways they would not ordinarily behave. Some drugs distort perceptions, some impact mood, and most 'dis-inhibit' in some sense of the word. While much is made of those freak incidents in which murder is committed by people too deep in hallucinations to appreciate the nature of their acts, this is hardly the norm. Far more common is the violence that comes from that little push a chemical can give towards acting on impulses that would otherwise be ignored. Alcohol has been used for years to provide both the excuse and the recklessness to perform acts most people in their right minds would not do, like robbing a liquor store. Drugs can be used in very much the same way, if one prefers to smoke, snort, or inject one's Dutch courage.
* Being illegal, the retail price of drugs far exceeds their production costs. Prohibition creates a very lucrative market for those willing to chance incarceration. This group generally includes those who are otherwise criminally inclined, including violent offenders. Even well established, mainstream markets have their frictions, and legal commerce relies heavily on the dispute resolution mechanisms of the state's courts. These, of course, are not available when peddling drugs, and violence is often required to sort out business disagreements.
* Some drugs are highly associated with drug dependency or addiction. This means that some users become quite convinced that they cannot live without them. Feeding this acquired imperative requires money, and being dependent on drugs can make finding the time to hold down a job quite difficult. The fact that they are illegal aggravates this dilemma, as it pushes up the price and ensures that drugs can only be purchased from criminals. The need for large amounts of instant cash without having to work a regular job tends to lead women into prostitution and fraud, while it tends to lead men into more direct forms of acquisitive crime. As the urgency of addiction increases, these crimes can often become violent.
Research in South Africa released in 2002 has confirmed a high positive correlation between drug use and other crimes.
In 1996, the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) Centre for Alcohol/Drug-related Research was commissioned by the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCO) to study the relationship between the level of drug/alcohol intake and crime in order to provide a detailed information base for rational and cost-effective prevention of the drug-crime problem.
It was decided to focus the research on offenders in South African prisons and on probation. A total of 1 604 male prisoners and sentenced men on probation were interviewed on their drug intake and criminal activities before their arrest for the offence for which they were serving a sentence.
The following findings were concluded:
* Drug intake tended to precede first involvement with criminal activities
* The use of dagga (marijuana, cannabis) tended to precede the use of alcohol, which in turn led to illicit drug taking and the latter concurrently led to involvement in criminal activities
* Taking drugs immediately before or at the time of committing an offence was general
* Rape and housebreaking/burglary were all associated with drinking, especially group drinking and drinking in public places
* Property crimes were associated with the smoking of dagga in groups.
Efforts at curbing drug-related crime will have to be part and parcel of a comprehensive initiative in which agencies in criminal justice, education, labour and industry work in close collaboration with one another.
A GOVERNMENT-WIDE RESPONSE TO DRUG ABUSE AND CRIME
The new democratic Cabinet of South Africa has structured itself and its organs on the basis that government departments cannot function in isolation from one another or from society at large. It has established various structures that are aimed at improving co-ordination between the various departments and sectors.
In particular, it has structured itself into six Cabinet Committees, which are then supported by six Cluster Committees that function at the Director-General level. The six Cabinet Committees are:
* Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS)
* Social Transformation Sector
* Economic Sector
* Investment Sector
* Governance and Administration
* International Relations, Peace and Security (IRPS).
The following are some of the initiatives from the South African Government in dealing with drugs and crime:
* The National Crime Prevention Strategy is a long-term programme aimed at creating conditions in which the opportunities and motivation for crime will be reduced, and transform the capacity of the criminal justice system.
* The National Master Plan aims to build a drug-free society to make a contribution to combating the global problem of substance abuse.
* The Central Drug Authority oversees and monitors the implementation of the Master Plan and also engages in coordinating counter narcotics program, acting as an authoritative advisor to Government and initiating measures to combat drug abuse.
* The South African Narcotics Bureau (SANAB) is a specialised unit within the SAPS and deals specifically with the smuggling of narcotics. Since 2001, SANAB and the South African Customs Service have been successful in and continue to make seizures of cocaine and increasingly, heroin, arriving in South Africa at international airports and harbours as well as to a lesser extent at border crossings.
* Social Cluster Task Team on Social Cohesion and Social Justice: A task team within the cluster was established to come up with programmes that seek to address issues relating to social justice and cohesion in an integrated manner. During January 2003 the priorities of the Social Cluster, with particular reference to Social Justice and Cohesion, were identified among others as follows:
o The development and implementation of an intensive educational awareness campaign in the nodes and educational institutions around substance abuse
o Consolidation of prisoner rehabilitation programmes
o Promotion of efforts and programmes around issues of moral regeneration.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE: CORRECTIONAL SERVICES SOUTH AFRICA RESPONSE
A position paper for submission to the Commissioners of Correctional Services and Prisons of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, elaborated on the importance of integrated governance to promote models of criminal justice cooperation. It stated that effective social crime prevention must entail a close partnership between government departments and between Government and civil society in delivery on social justice and social cohesion.
The Department of Correctional Services is entrusted with the responsibility of detaining offenders, supervising community corrections sentences and parole in conditions that are consistent with human dignity and correcting their offending behaviour. This responsibility, which is a statutory mandate of the department, needs to be carried out in a manner that is integrated and coordinated and which ultimately results in the attainment of best results in the most efficient and effective way.
6.1 Collaboration with the community
The department acknowledges the important contribution that the community can make in effecting rehabilitation and is also mindful of the fact that the correcting of offending behaviour cannot be successful if this responsibility is borne by the Department of Correctional Services alone. Crime prevention, in which corrections has a central part, is a joint Government-community responsibility. This understanding informs the manner in which the department approaches its central task of rehabilitation or correction of offending behaviour.
The department has formed collaborative partnerships with community-based service providers in an effort to assist the substance-addicted offenders to jettison undesirable behaviour, adopt and embrace values that are acceptable in the society.
Two examples worth mentioning are:
* The South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCA) Ahanang Prison Project: Targeting youth awaiting trial offenders, sentenced youth offenders and youth offenders in the pre-release phase of incarceration, was formally launched in 2003 in six South African youth prisons. The Ahanang Prison Project offers HIV/AIDS and substance abuse information to incarcerated youth offenders in order to change negative attitudes and behaviour. The project runs over a year and impacts substance abuse lifestyles towards living a productive lifestyle among peer groups and society at large. Skills transfer for presentation of the programme by staff of the Department of Correctional Services forms part of the project. Selected staff members receive in-programme substance abuse training by SANCA during the project duration, enabling them to continue with substance abuse treatment after SANCA has withdrawn.
* Khulisa is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that contributes to the reduction of crime through the development and implementation of social crime prevention programmes. Khulisa works with youth offenders by offering a holistic crime prevention programme. Khulisa's work is unique because it is largely introduced and facilitated by former offenders and youth programme graduates. This approach has proved to be highly successful in promoting a positive influence on and a point of identification with, young people in many forums.
CONCLUSION
The Government of South Africa is committed in countering both domestic and transnational crime and combating the use of and the trafficking in illicit narcotics is an important component of its anticrime agenda.
South Africa, as part of the SADC, presents the region as a whole with perhaps its greatest opportunities but also its most intractable challenges in countering rising crime rates and drug abuse.
Given its economic dominance, its range of sophisticated resources (by regional standards) and its attraction for criminal enterprise of all kinds, any significant improvements on the crime and drugs front in this country could reverberate positively around the whole of Southern Africa.
The South African Government's commitment to create an effective legal and regulatory infrastructure to combat drug trafficking, and all other forms of organised crime, is evident in the agreements and treaties it has engaged in. South Africa is party to the 1996 SADC Protocol on Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking. South Africa is also a party to the 1961 United Nations (UN) Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the 1972 Protocol amending the Single Convention, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 UN Drug Convention.
In September 1999, the United States (US) and South Africa signed a mutual legal assistance treaty and a new extradition treaty to replace the existing 1947 extradition treaty. In December 2000, South Africa signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants.
Instruments of ratification were exchanged in 2001 to bring the bilateral treaties into force.
In September 2001, the US and South Africa also signed a letter of agreement on anticrime and counter narcotics assistance, which provides for US training and commodity assistance to several South African law enforcement agencies.
Apart from the need for South Africa to work jointly with the international community to develop an effective global strategy, the necessary policies and actions to combat drug trafficking and drug abuse will be developed through close partnership between government departments and between Government and civil society.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
7 November 2003
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