The ‘business’ of assassination is booming

The August 2021 killing of accountant Babita Deokaran outside her home in south Joburg sent a spine-chilling message to whistleblowers everywhere: exposing corruption can be lethal.

Deokaran, the former chief director of financial accounting at the Gauteng Health Department appears to have been targeted for exposing about R1 billion worth of irregular tenders at the Tembisa Hospital.

A preliminary Special Investigative Unit (SIU) report suggests her killing was related to corruption involving no fewer than 227 companies. Several arrests have been made, though the real masterminds appear to be at large.

Earlier this year, former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter survived an attempt on his life by poisoning, having received several prior threats. The reasons are murky, though not hard to imagine: De Ruyter was tough on corruption and closing in on the syndicates bleeding Eskom dry.

In May 2022, Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer received a bomb threat, allegedly from an Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) branch chair who had been overlooked for a job opportunity at the electricity utility.

These are just two instances of threats against Eskom executives, according to Eskom’s general manager for security, Advocate Karen Pillay.

ALSO READ: Minister commends swift arrests in University killings

Xenophobic threat

Just this week, the Global South Against Xenophobia (GSAX) and 43 co-signatories put out a message alerting law enforcement authorities about a xenophobic threat made against Helen Suzman Foundation director Nicole Fritz, as well as her children.

This was just days after the Foundation went to court to argue for the setting aside of the government’ decision to suspend the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) system.

This follows a menacing threat from someone going by the name of Freeman Bhengu on Twitter.

Death threats have also been made against Advocate Simba Chitando, who is likewise challenging the ZEP suspension in court.

In 2022, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime recorded 141 assassinations in SA, an average of more than two a week. All this is laid bare in a new report The Business of Killing, Assassinations in South Africa, prepared by Rumbi Matamba.

ALSO READ: Hitmen assassinate at least two people every week in South Africa

Murray and Forbes murders

Just last month, prominent insolvency lawyer Cloete Murray and his son, Thomas, were shot and killed by hitmen on the N1 highway near Joburg. One of the cases they had been working on was the liquidation of facilities management company Bosasa that featured so voluminously in the Zondo reports into state capture.

In February, popular rapper Kiernan Forbes (better known as AKA), and celebrity chef Tebello Motsoane were shot a killed outside a Durban restaurant.

In March, politically connected Mpumalanga crime boss, Clyde Mnisi, was shot and killed by four balaclava-clad gunmen armed with assault rifles. The murder came five months after he was crowned a chief. His wife, Charlene Mathews, was shot dead shortly after his funeral.

“In South Africa, particularly over the last two decades, violence has become a monetizable (sic) commodity that can be bought and sold,” says the Global Initiative report.

Assassinations, commissioned for economic, political or personal gain, are part of a broader commercial market for organised violence and intimidation.

“Although such targeted killings constitute a small proportion of the country’s extraordinarily high murder rate, they have a powerful, resonating impact, in that they send out an unequivocal, threatening message to the victims’ communities, colleagues and families,” the report says.

ALSO READ: Alleged battle over tenders at uMshwati Municipality blamed for brutal murder

Hitmen

“Professional hitmen are in high demand within the taxi industry and organised crime markets, and are also contracted by political and business actors to remove rivals and threats. Assassination has therefore become a strategic tool,” it adds.

Assassins are often recruited from the criminal underworld, taxi gangs and, in some cases, from law enforcement. The existence of the ‘business’ of assassinations has long been recognised by the state, prompting the launch of several commissions of inquiry, including the Moerane Commission of Inquiry into political assassinations in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

Despite high levels of targeted killings, there is no dedicated state-level database focusing on this crime group, says the report.

To be declared a ‘hit’, the researchers say certain criteria must be met: criminal justice or the deceased family’s declaration that the killing was a hit, the circumstances in which the hit took place, and that it was the result of a transaction (for money or otherwise).

ALSO READ: Former Fort Hare SRC member implicated in tender empire, targeted killings

Targeted killings

The 141 targeted killings in 2022 is undoubtedly an undercount, say the researchers. Though this is a relatively small part of SA’s 25 000 annual murders, which is up 62% over the last decade.

Targeted killings carry significant strategic and symbolic weight. They allow criminal groups “to influence political processes and exert and maintain control over communities.”

They also subvert democratic processes and violate the rule of law, while allowing criminals to gain control over lucrative markets, as seen in the infamous ‘tobacco wars’ and ‘taxi wars’.

The chart above shows the overall trend in assassinations in SA, with taxi-related killings accounting for nearly half of all cases since 2000.

This reveals a worrying trend, says the author, and will likely continue unless full and proper investigations into specific clusters of killings are not carried out.

The proliferation of illegal firearms and recruitment pools of hitmen available in the taxi industry – specifically in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Western Cape – are due in part to the unregulated nature of the industry.

One of the key findings of the 2020 Commission of Inquiry into Taxi Violence by Justice Jeremiah Shongwe was that because taxi associations are not regulated, they often allow taxi operators without operating licences to join their associations.

“This leads to fierce competition between taxi associations over contested and lucrative routes. Consequently, violent disputes over saturated routes flare up among the associations,” says the report.

ALSO READ: KZN murder spree: Five dead in drive-by shootings

Political assassinations

Another worrying trend identified in the report is the rise of political assassinations, accounting for 40 hits in 2022, nearly double the 2020 figure.

Roughly half of political assassinations took place in KZN, a province already notorious for providing hitmen to other provinces, and even countries. Violence is concentrated in specific parts of the province such as the Midlands and the eThekwini metro.

On Monday this week, Groundup reported that an ANC councillor had been shot dead in Philippi in Cape Town while attending a meeting to discuss the relocation of people occupying a disused rail line.

What may appear to be a political killing is often linked to who gets access to public funds.

The Business of Killing report cites the case of Mzimuni Ngiba, a ‘feared strongman’ in the eThekwini metro who lost an internal ANC contest to Siyabonga Mkhize in 2021. Mkhize was assassinated in October 2021 but won the elections posthumously.

Ngiba, next on the party’s list, resecured his old seat and access to power and patronage. Ngiba and three others were arrested in May 2022 for the murder of Mkhize. Ngiba has attended the trial from behind bars after his bail application was dismissed in August 2022.

Violence in Cato Crest is common. In Durban, two other ANC councillors are facing charges in relation to internal ANC battles. Themba Mnguni is on trial for the murder of three party supporters at an ANC branch meeting in 2021, and Mzwandile Shandu for attempted murder of two people in 2021. Police say these charges are related to power struggles within the ANC.

ALSO READ: Drug lords blamed for spike in crime in KwaZulu-Natal

Assassination for insurance fraud

Many of the personal hits recorded by the author were apparently for the purposes of insurance fraud. One horrifying case was that of 25-year-old Hlompho Mohapi, who was stabbed to death in July 2018 and her body found near Herold’s Bay in the Western Cape. She had been lured to her death under the guise of a job interview – a common ruse used by criminals in SA.

The deception formed part of a scam orchestrated by ‘Pastor’ Melisizwe Monqo, his then fiancée, Siphosihle Pamba, and his cousin, Phumlani Qhusheka, in which life insurance policies were taken out in the names of unsuspecting victims.

The accused had previously attempted to scam numerous individuals in the Eastern Cape. Among these was Numfundiso Booi, in whose name a R5.5 million policy was taken out, and on whose life numerous attempts were made soon after.

There’s a disturbing flippancy about the way in which assassinations are being used to settle personal vendettas, commit insurance fraud, or get into local government – a sure way to get your hands on public funds.

To curb assassinations, the author of The Business of Killing report suggests treating ‘hits’ as a separate crime category rather than as part of murder.

Law enforcement needs to disrupt the recruitment pools for hitmen, especially in KwaZulu-Natal’s taxi industry, with better firearm control.

The author says illicit firearms often used in targeted killings mostly come from domestic sources, including the private security sector and firearms illegally diverted from state-owned coffers.

Finally, robust investigations and convictions are needed. Intelligence gathering and investigation capabilities have been hobbled by “years of mismanagement by the police, political interference, deep-seated corruption and lack of specialist skills.”

Not much will change unless this trend is reversed, and the rate of conviction accelerated.

This article originally appeared on Moneyweb and was republished with permission.
Read the original article here.