This case study uses social network analysis to study the interactions of a criminal network operating in a township outside Cape Town. Data was gathered from a court judgment following the trial. Code names are used throughout the study as many of those involved in the trial are appealing their sentences.

About the authors:

Khalil Goga is a researcher in the Institute for Security Studies Transnational Threats and International Crime Division. He has been researching organised crime in Africa since 2009 and has been affiliated with the ISS since 2012. He previously lectured at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, from where he received both his undergraduate and master’s degrees.

Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran has a master’s in political science. As director of Scientific Vortex Inc. he collaborates with institutes and universities worldwide researching the structure of transnational criminal networks that participate in corruption, drug trafficking and state capture. He is also part of the EDGE Foundation, which gathers together thinkers ’who are at the center of today’s intellectual, technological, and scientific landscape’.

Charles Goredema is a research consultant, who has studied economic crime in Africa since 2001. A former prosecutor and law lecturer, Charles led the research on crime networks in Cape Town, as part of a project on the impact of organised crime on governance in Cape Town and Dakar.

This paper was made possible with support from the International Development Research Centre. The ISS is grateful for support from the following members of the ISS Partnership Forum: the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United States