THE RULE OF THE GUN Hits and Assassinations in South Africa - January 2000 to December 2017 - Assassination Witness

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THE RULE OF THE GUN Hits and Assassinations in South Africa - January 2000 to December 2017 - Assassination Witness
ThE RULE OF ThE GUN
    Hits and Assassinations in South Africa
          January 2000 to December 2017
THE RULE OF THE GUN Hits and Assassinations in South Africa - January 2000 to December 2017 - Assassination Witness
The rule of the gun        Assassination Witness

     About the report
     This report is a product of a project called Assassination Witness, a collaboration
     between the Centre for Criminology at the University of Cape Town and the
     Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC).

     The report was authored by Kim Thomas with the assistance of Azwi Netshikulwe
     and Ncedo Mngqibisa.

     To find out more about the work of Assassination Witness, see www.assassination
     witness.org.za and for daily tweeting on hits in South Africa, follow us on Twitter
     at @AssassinationZA.

     Publication date: March 2018

     Acknowledgements
     I would in particular like to thank Azwi Netshikulwe and Ncedo Mngqibisa for
     their fieldwork in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, Julie Berg for managing the
     project from the Centre of Criminology at the University of Cape Town, and
     Lameez Mota and Liesel Collins for their assistance in administrating the project.
     Guy Lamb and Elrena van der Spuy provided valuable comments on an earlier
     version of the report. I am grateful to Mark Ronan for editing the report. Lastly,
     I would like to thank Mark Shaw for his invaluable input, direction and support,
     without which this project would not have been possible.

     International IDEA partnered with us by providing software that was used to map
     the impact of assassinations on democracy at the local level. Corruption Watch
     supplied us with data that was used to establish whether there is a relationship
     between corruption and assassinations.

     We would like to acknowledge the funders of this project, the Open Society
     Foundation of South Africa, the Government of Norway and the National
     Research Foundation of South Africa.

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THE RULE OF THE GUN Hits and Assassinations in South Africa - January 2000 to December 2017 - Assassination Witness
The rule of the gun        Assassination Witness

      Summary
      This report presents an analysis of          criminal market, notably South Africa’s
      data on hits (contract killings) carried     notoriously violent taxi industry, which
      out in South Africa. The data has            provides a recruitment pool where
      been compiled as part of the work of         hitmen can be hired. The findings
      a collaborative project, Assassination       of this report aim to inform a more
      Witness. The data that informs the           effective policy response to the
      report spans the period from 2000 to         phenomenon of contract killings in
      2017 and the findings allow certain          South Africa in order that more can be
      conclusions to be drawn about the            done about it.
      evolving nature of the phenomenon of
      paid-for assassinations.                     Various international studies provided
                                                   the terminology, framework and
      The targeted killing of people – a form      background to understanding how
      of organized crime that escalated            and why contract killings become
      rapidly towards the end of the data          prevalent. But these analyses
      period – has a highly detrimental            are largely focused on developed
      impact on South Africa’s ongoing             countries.1
      democratic project and often fragile
      governance systems. The study                It is important to note that the South
      found that a large proportion of             African context, as is the case with
      assassinations in South Africa are           other developing countries, is different
      contracted for political, economic or        from that of the Global North. In South
      social gain, and that commissioned           Africa, the sheer number of hits is
      killings also targeted professionals         greater, the urgency of collecting the
      in the country’s criminal-justice            data more apparent and the need to
      system. There are segments of the            act more pressing.
      economy that nurture and feed this

      Key recommendations
      • Improve firearm control to reduce the flow of illicit arms.

      • Focus on reducing violent competition within the taxi industry.

      • Erode the ‘nurseries of violence’ that provide a supply of hitmen for hire.

      • Bolster prosecution-led investigations.

      • Expand efforts at monitoring assassinations and disaggregate homicide data,
        so that better-quality statistics on contract killings are made available.

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                         Introduction
                         Sindiso Magaqa rose to prominence as        person killed for gain, monetary or
                         one of Julius Malema’s key allies after     otherwise. An event begins with the
                         being elected as secretary general          initial exploration of the possibility of
                         of the ANC Youth League in 2011. At         having someone killed, and terminates
                         the time of his death, he was an ANC        with a murder, attempted murder, or
                         councillor and executive committee          police intervention.’2 When describing
                         member for the Umzimkhulu                   the phenomenon, we use both the
                         municipality. He was lauded as having       term ‘hit’ – which is widely used in
                         the potential for a bright political        South African popular discourse – and
                         future. One evening in July 2017,           ‘assassination’. In terms of South
                         Magaqa and two other ANC councillors        African law, making use of a third party
                         pulled over at a shop in the village of     to commit a murder is no different
                         Umzimkhulu on their way back from           from committing the murder oneself.3
                         an ANC meeting. Moments later, they
SINDISO MAGAQA           were ambushed by gunmen who fired           The cost of hits can be felt in many
 4 September 2017        a hail of bullets at them. All three        ways. But, generally, the goals of an
    Umizimkhulu,         were rushed to hospital for medical         open, prosperous and democratic
   Kwa Zulu Natal        attention. On 4 September 2017,             society are severely thwarted
                         Magaqa died from his injuries, making       when people are killed for political,
                         him the fourth councillor to be killed in   economic, criminal and social gain.
                         the area in 2017.                           This report aims to quantify the
                                                                     problem of killings by paid hitmen
                         Magaqa is only one of the many              in South Africa, to examine why the
                         victims of assassinations in South          rate of contract killings has risen so
                         Africa, few of which receive the            sharply in recent years and to build
                         coverage in the media that his death        the evidence base that can provide a
                         did. In several cases, the victims of       platform for a call to action.
                         hits had been whistle-blowers or civic
                         activists who had stood up for the          Targeted assassinations have resulted
                         truth or who had wished to serve their      in the deaths of many citizens, but,
                         communities. For this, they paid the        among the victims, there is a notable
                         ultimate price.                             proportion who had been politicians,
                                                                     whistle-blowers, proprietors of taxi
                         According to the data used for this         businesses (known colloquially as
                         study, there were 159 reported              ‘taxi bosses’) and members of the
                         assassinations in South Africa in           legal fraternity. The impact of these
                         2017– a figure that was up by 36%           assassinations is far-reaching, as they
                         from 2016 (when 117 hits were               undermine South Africa’s democracy
                         recorded) and up by 346% from 2012          and judiciary, and threaten fair
                         (46 hits). From these numbers, it is        economic competition – suggesting
                         clear that assassinations are a rapidly     they are used to exert a mafia-type
                         growing problem in South Africa. As         control over society. But the effect
                         the analysis in this report will show,      is felt not only by institutions – a hit
                         there was a particularly dramatic           is also a human tragedy, and has an
                         increase in reported cases between          overwhelming impact on the victim’s
                         2014 and the end of 2017.                   family and community. The killing
                                                                     of breadwinners is economically
                         A contract hit, or assassination,           devastating for dependants.
                         can be defined as ‘a continuous
                         sequence of interactions by one or          Yet despite their impact, the scale
                         more persons in which one person            and scope of assassinations in South
                         solicits another person to have a third     Africa have not been monitored

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The rule of the gun       Assassination Witness

                      or analyzed, and the current              In the personal category, we included
                      understanding of assassinations           cases that involved infidelity or
                      – and the response to them – is           perceived infidelity (love triangles),
                      poor. For example, there are no           attempts to obtain life-insurance
                      disaggregated police statistics for       pay-outs and several cases of
                      contract killings. The South African      children arranging for their parents
                      Police Service releases statistics        to be killed. Finally, we included a
                      on homicides – but not types of           category for South Africa’s minibus-
                      homicides. Therefore, to collate the      taxi industry, partly because of the
                      figures for this study we drew on the     sheer number of murder cases in
                      resources of a database covering          this industry, and because it is an
                      local, regional and national news. The    industry segment that has long been
                      information from the database was         characterized by the prevalence of
                      then supplemented with detailed           targeted killings. These include hits
                      searches of internet news stories.        targeting taxi bosses, taxi drivers
                                                                and members of taxi association
                      The time frame for the search was         committees. Such murders are usually
                      2000 to 2017. This intensive work         connected to disputes over route
Political conflict,   generated a sample of over 16 000
                      media articles, which were then
                                                                allocations and power struggles
                                                                within the lucrative taxi associations.
poor governance       reviewed to identify specific cases
                      where the police, family or media         Analysis of the data revealed two
    and political     indicated that the victim had been        alarming trends. First, there was a
                      the subject of an alleged hit. These      marked increase in the total number
    uncertainty       cases were then coded for analysis        of assassinations carried out in South
                      according to their details, including     Africa since 2012. It also shows that
  contributed to      the name and gender of the victim,        this significant upswing through

   an increase in
                      the date and location of the incident,    to the end of 2017 was driven by
                      the method used to conduct the            increases in all the categories of

  the numbers of
                      murder, the outcome and any other         assassinations mentioned above.
                      relevant circumstances surrounding        It is perhaps not surprising that

  assassinations      the hit. We included in the database
                      not only hits where the target was
                                                                political conflict, poor governance
                                                                and political uncertainty, for example,

 that fall into the   actually killed, but also assassination
                      attempts that failed (i.e. where the
                                                                which defined the South African
                                                                administration between 2014 and

political category.   intended target was only injured), or
                      cases where the wrong person was
                                                                2017, contributed to an increase in
                                                                the numbers of assassinations that
                      killed (although these form only a        fall into the political category. But
                      small proportion of the total).           there were also increases in cases
                                                                associated with organized crime and
                      All the incidents that we identified      a large recorded growth in the number
                      as hits were then divided into four       of targeted killings associated with
                      separate categories. Cases that fall      the taxi industry.
                      within the political category generally
                      targeted individuals designated as        It is also significant that hits
                      holding a political or administrative     associated with the taxi industry
                      office, almost always in local            have a direct impact on other
                      government. We categorized cases          categories, because the industry has
                      related to economic interests and         generated a cadre of hitmen available
                      organized crime as those that clearly     for hire, which means that a largely
                      used targeted violence to influence       unmanaged set of taxi route conflicts
                      a certain economic outcome – often        has rippled out, creating an impact on
                      these occurred in the criminal            both local governance and the lives of
                      economy.4                                 ordinary people.

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The rule of the gun        Assassination Witness

                      The breakdown of hits by category       Consequently, many attorneys take
                      shows that the taxi industry            safety precautions out of fear for
                      accounted for the largest number        their lives.
                      of hits (43%), followed by the
                      political (22%) and organized-crime     The second is to explore the link
                      (22%) categories. Hits that fall in     between targeted hits and the
                      the personal category represent         prevalence of corruption in local
                      the smallest proportion of the          authorities. To determine the impact
                      cases (13%). These categories are       of targeted killing on democracy,
                      analyzed in more detail later in the    we mapped the number of
                      report.                                 assassinations against measures of
                                                              corruption at the provincial level. Our
                      The province that experienced           findings here suggest that although
                      the greatest number of hits in the      there are corrupt municipalities
                      recording period was KwaZulu-           that don’t have hits, there are no
                      Natal, followed by Gauteng and the      municipalities with hits without
                      Western Cape.                           corruption.

                      Analysis of each of these cases         The third is to examine the degree
                      indicates that in 86% of the            to which political party change
                      incidents, the victim was male,         or political competition has had
  More political      while 7% involved female targets;       an impact on the prevalence of
                      7% of the incidents involved the        assassinations. When one analyzes
 hits take place in   deaths of both male and female          the way political parties gained or
                      targets.                                lost power at the local-government
 areas where the                                              level, the data reveals another

local-government
                      In cases where the information          significant finding: more political
                      was recorded in the database of         hits take place in areas where the

  party in power
                      media stories, firearms were by         local-government party in power
                      far the main choice of weapon           has remained the same, indicating

   has remained       used in the incidents (83%). Most
                      assassinations were carried out
                                                              that hits are more often related
                                                              to internal power struggles within

     the same.        outside the victim’s home – often
                      as the victim was arriving home and
                                                              political parties – most notably the
                                                              ANC – than to conflict between
                      often late at night.                    them.

                      We also used the data to examine        Finally, the study tested whether the
                      a number of questions that are          number of assassinations forms a
                      important for the debate. The first     consistent proportion of the murder
                      is the impact of the targeted killing   figures in each province over the
                      of people who work in the criminal-     period the data covers, or whether
                      justice system. The assassination       the hits phenomenon is more a
                      of those who work in the justice        function of its own underlying
                      sector must be viewed with              drivers (even if these cannot perhaps
                      particular concern. Examination of      be separated in their entirety from
                      cases relating to the targeting of      the high level of general violence
                      attorneys, prosecutors, magistrates,    in South Africa). Significantly, the
                      judges and witnesses shows that         findings show that the number of
                      the impact of these murders has         hits appears to be independent of
                      been far-reaching, as they are          the levels of murder in almost all
                      used to influence or manipulate         parts of the country, suggesting that
                      the justice system by ensuring,         the prevalence of assassinations is
                      for example, that witnesses are         driven by a specific set of factors.
                      intimidated into not testifying.

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The rule of the gun        Assassination Witness

                      Although the data analyzed in this           urgency, those who commission them
                      report is valuable in terms of its           will continue to exert illicit power and
                      ability to shed much-needed light on         influence over South Africa’s society,
                      assassinations in South Africa, it is        economy and democracy.
                      not without its flaws. On the basis
                      of our research in the field, it is very      The Assassination Witness project
                      likely, for example, that the database       hopes to continue to collect data, in
                      undercounts the number of hits that          particular in the run-up to the 2019
                      occurred in the context of organized         general election. For South Africa to
                      crime and the gang environment of            develop into a society in which all
                      the Western Cape. From interviews            feel safe, and where economic and
                      conducted among gangs, it would              political competition is lawfully and
                      appear likely that not all such cases        transparently regulated, it is critical
                      are covered in the press and are             that the rule of the gun is ended.
    If nothing is     therefore probably not all present in
                      the database. Similarly, it is likely that
  done to address     the database may not include hits
                      that occurred in remote rural areas
     the issue of     where there is little media presence
                      or coverage. Nevertheless, the data
 assassinations as    provides a meaningful overview of
                      the extent and trajectory of the hit
     a matter of      phenomenon in South Africa.

  urgency, those      The overlay between the political,
                      economic and social factors that act
 who commission       as catalysts for contract killings in

them will continue
                      South Africa speaks to the importance
                      of an effective response. Not least,

   to exert illicit
                      this must include the arrest and
                      prosecution of hitmen. Unfortunately,

      power and       the data does not contain details that
                      allow us to measure the proportion of

   influence over     the cases where arrests or successful
                      prosecutions have been made. But by

   South Africa’s     having followed up on developments
                      in individual cases, it would seem
 society, economy     that the success rate is far too low
                      (measured by whether a suspect is
  and democracy.      arrested and brought to trial).

                      It is clear that only a concerted
                      and strategic response will end
                      the phenomenon of hits. An
                      effective response must include
                      addressing police corruption, better
                      implementation of firearm control,
                      reducing political interference with
                      and connections to local-government
                      tender processes, and achieving better
                      regulation of the taxi industry.

                      If nothing is done to address the
                      issue of assassinations as a matter of

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The rule of the gun        Assassination Witness

     Methodology:
     Collating statistics on South Africa’s contract killings
     With a homicide rate six times higher      media. Sabinet encompasses 19
     than the global average,5 it is common     daily publications, 17 weekend
     enough knowledge that South Africa is      publications, two weekly publications
     a particularly violent country. However,   and one monthly publication.9
     as mentioned earlier, although             We supplemented this content
     homicide statistics are made available     with searches of other electronic
     by the South African Police Service,       news sources, using the search
     there is no disaggregated data on          terms ‘contract killing’, ‘political
     contract killings.6 And, given the low     assassination’, ‘hitman’ and ‘taxi
     conviction rates7, it is difficult to      killing’. Collectively, these searches
     establish the motives for murders and      generated over 16 000 individual
     how they are carried out. An additional    articles from the South African press.
     data-collection method was therefore
     needed to determine the scope and          Each of these news articles was then
     scale of assassinations in South Africa.   reviewed to identify cases where the
                                                circumstances and the commentary
     Trying to quantify assassinations is       provided by the police, court
     beset with obvious difficulties, in that   proceedings, the community or family
     they are deliberately concealed crimes.    of those involved suggested that a
     Those who perpetrate assassinations        hit or assassination (or attempted
     have often, for example, masked them       assassination) had taken place. We
     as failed hijackings or robberies. And     recorded various other details on each
     they are, unsurprisingly, reluctant        case where available. We then sorted
     to talk openly to researchers. As is       the cases, based on the details we had
     the case with other hidden social          obtained about them, into the four
     phenomena, the data can therefore          categories of hits described earlier:
     shine a light on the problem, but it is    those linked to the taxi industry,
     unlikely to be able to accurately reveal   organized crime, personal motives and
     its true extent. The data used in this     politics.
     report – although a valuable indicator
     of what is occurring in South Africa’s     Compiling the database raised various
     assassination economy – is likely to be    challenges. For example, we needed to
     an underestimate of the real extent of     experiment with search terms to make
     this type of crime, for reasons already    sure they identified enough cases for
     explained in the Introduction.             more detailed review. It was important
                                                to maintain consistency in identifying
     The approach was to build a database       and recording the cases, and to make
     of hits (including attempted hits)         sure that the data was checked and
     in South Africa over the period            double-checked. We are aware that
     2000 to 2017. To do this, we used a        there may be gaps in the sampling
     content analysis approach, primarily       method, as it does not capture cases
     applying it quantitatively, namely to      where hits may have been masked as
     code and count the occurrence of           accidents, or those that did not receive
     assassinations.8                           any media coverage, or where there
                                                may have been pressure on reporters
     To create the sample, we drew              not to run the story. And, in some
     on the resources of an electronic          cases, most notably those related to
     database, Sabinet, which provides          gang violence in the Western Cape,
     access to local, regional and national     murders of this sort are seldom
     news content published in the print        ‘newsworthy’ and our own interviews

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The rule of the gun        Assassination Witness

      on the ground suggest that many do        findings of which is provided later in
      not make the media. There are also        the report.11
      more general drawbacks to using
      media reports, principally because        This study is a continuation of a
      the data is entirely dependent on the     previous research project that looked
      resources and capacity of journalists     into assassinations in South Africa by
      and media houses. Nevertheless,           compiling a database of media articles
      research that monitors violence in        and then categorizing and examining
      South Africa and elsewhere has drawn      the overall trends of assassinations in
      on similar methods in the past.10         South Africa from 2000 to 2015.12
                                                This project has gone further by
      Despite these drawbacks, however, we      expanding the existing database, by
      believe that the hits database provides   including more details of the individual
      a unique and useful way to measure        hits over the time period and by
      and examine a specific set of crimes      continuing to collect information on
      that have major political, economic       hits for 2016 and 2017.
      and social consequences. The
      quantitative data was also checked
      and balanced against qualitative
      fieldwork, including interviews and
      focus groups conducted in Gauteng
      and KwaZulu-Natal, a summary of the

      Assassinations:
       Exerting mafia-type control over South African
       public life

      The impact of the assassinations          Of course, assassinations do not
      recorded in our data set is profound.     occur in a vacuum. Political instability,
      Victims are targeted across the           corruption in the public and private
      country and the ripple effect taints      sectors or the failure to regulate the
      South Africa’s society, economy and       taxi industry are factors that provide
      democratic integrity. Hits have at        opportunities where assassination – or
      their core the innate ability to create   the threat of assassination – is used as
      fear and uncertainty among groups         a tool for political, economic or social
      of people and institutions. And with      gain. The use of targeted violence
      the added veil between who is calling     to achieve such objectives is at its
      the shots and the victim, a contract      heart a process akin to how mafia
      killing provides the perpetrator with     organizations exert violent control over
      the ability to intimidate and control     public life.
      with reduced risk of being caught.
                                                Comparative studies have shown
      The circulation of so-called hit lists    that the impact of assassinations in
      in communities and constituencies         political and economic relationships
      is also used as a means of exerting       is greatest when leadership change
      criminal control by causing fear.         happens behind closed doors, without
      People whose names appear in hit          transparency and accountability,
      lists are threatened; they go into        or occurs in circumstances of
      hiding, resign from their jobs or         competition and conflict.13 These
      disengage from civic activism, for        factors arguably exist in many places
      example.                                  and institutions in South Africa,

                         8
The rule of the gun          Assassination Witness

                        where targeted killing often leads         the health of South African society.
                        to spiralling levels of violence and       Understanding and responding to
                        revenge killing.                           that trend is a priority for building a
                                                                   democratic society.
                        There is growing evidence from
                        around the world of the overlay            If those who engage in instrumental
                        between politics, business and             violence face few consequences
                        criminal activity – criminal violence      in terms of paying for their crimes,
                        is commissioned to influence               then using this type of violence is
                        interactions in all three spheres.14       likely to become the norm. As noted
                                                                   above, it may result in a spiralling of
                        This is essentially how mafia              revenge killings. Our data collection,
                        networks exert control over                as mentioned, has not allowed us to
                        organizations, individuals and             determine what proportion of the
                        state institutions. In such contexts,      hits we record have been solved by
                        the boundaries between criminal,           the police. However, David Bruce,
                        economic and political motivations         the leading analyst on this subject,
If those who engage     blur considerably.                         explains how there have been roughly
                                                                   120 political killings in South Africa
   in instrumental      There is also a small but growing body     since 2003 and less than 10% of them
                        of literature on assassinations and        have resulted in convictions.19 It is
  violence face few     political killings in South Africa.15      doubtful that the overall conviction

  consequences in
                        Corroborating the findings of the          rate for hits is higher than this figure.
                        international literature on the subject,

terms of paying for
                        these works also demonstrate that          This study is particularly important
                        contract killings in one sphere of         given that hits often target

 their crimes, then     society may overlap and influence
                        the production of violence in
                                                                   local-government civil servants,
                                                                   whistle-blowers and key witnesses

  using this type of    other areas.16 As earlier work has
                        suggested, targeted killings within
                                                                   – representatives of the people in
                                                                   a democratic society.20 The use

violence is likely to   South Africa’s taxi industry have
                        been a major stimulus for violence
                                                                   of targeted violence is therefore
                                                                   particularly detrimental to the
 become the norm.       elsewhere.17                               achievement of an open society,
                                                                   undermining, as it does, confidence
                        Recent research also suggests              in political institutions and systems,
                        that the presence of a mafia-style         and subverting transparent economic
                        capacity for violence in the criminal      processes.
                        economy and its use by those with
                        political and economic power – or
                        the fact they tolerate its use by
                        others – are key indicators of ‘how
                        democracies die’ – the title of an
                        important recent study that draws
                        on historical analyses of democratic
                        states that falter, decline or shift
                        towards authoritarianism.18

                        Collecting data on assassinations and
                        contract killing therefore provides a
                        ready measure of the degree to which
                        violence is used instrumentally in
                        the South African political economy
                        – and, in the process, a measure of

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                          Assassinations in South Africa,
                          2000–2017:
                          The findings
                          The data that was collected and             declining trend. By 2017, the average
                          analyzed for the period revealed            incident count was approximately
                          various time trends by both province        double the 2012 figure – and an
                          and category. Additional findings           increase of approximately 60% of the
                          concerning the variables that were          average at the start of the period in
                          recorded (i.e. gender, method of            2000.
                          assassination, location, occupation
                          and/or relationship between the             Although it is political assassinations
                          victim and the person who ordered           that get most prominent coverage in
                          the hit) also came to light, some of        the media, increases occurred across
                          which are analyzed here. A total of         all four categories in the data period.
                          1 317 cases were recorded over the          The increase was particularly the case
                          time period.                                with targeted killings related to the
                                                                      taxi business. Indeed, assassinations
                          A visual inspection of the trend line for   broken down by incident type show
                          total annual incident counts for South      that throughout the period, the taxi-
                          Africa as a whole suggests a general        related incidents were the biggest
                          decline from 2000 to 2012. Between          contributor to the overall trend. This
                          2014 and 2017, however, the average         is followed by organized crime and
                          annual incident count increased             political incidents, and finally personal
                          sharply, reversing the previous             incidents.

         Total count of reported assassination incidents across South Africa
                 with moving average smoothing line superimposed

160

150

140

130

120

110

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30                                                                               Moving average
20

10                                                                               Incident count
 0

  2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

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The rule of the gun            Assassination Witness

                                        Hits breakdown across all four categories

                                              Personal
           13%
                                              Taxi
 22%                      43%
                                              Political

                                              Organized crime
           22%

                                        Assassinations by province
                                        Assassinations broken down by province show that throughout the period,
                                        KwaZulu-Natal is the largest contributor to the national trend, followed
                                        by Gauteng, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape, with more modest
                                        contributions from Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West. Over the duration of
                                        2016 and 2017, the Eastern Cape and, to a lesser extent, the Western Cape both
                                        increased their contribution to the overall trend.

                                        Hits by province and category, 2000—2017

600

450

300

150

 0
      Eastern Cape   Free State   Gauteng   KwaZulu-Natal   Limpopo    Mpumalanga   North West   Northern Cape Western Cape

                                              Taxi                                           Personal

                                              Political                                      Organized crime

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                                    Hits by province, 2000–2017

                                         KwaZulu-Natal                 40%           North West                  4%
                                         Gauteng                       24%           Limpopo                     2%
                                          Western Cape                 14%           Free State                  1%
                                         Eastern Cape                  12%           Northern Cape               1%
                                         Mpumalanga                    4%

                                    KwaZulu-Natal
                                    KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 40%             organized crime and hits that fall into
                                    (i.e. 522 cases) of all the hits recorded   the personal category.
                                    for the time period and is the most
                                    significant provincial contributor to       In terms of trends over time, the
                                    assassinations nationally.                  temporary slight increase between
                                                                                2007 and 2010 is entirely attributable
                                    A breakdown of assassination                to increases in taxi-related killings.
                                    incidents in KwaZulu-Natal is               The sharp increase from 2012 can be
                                    consistent over longer periods. There       largely explained by a correspondingly
                                    was a general declining trend between       sharp increase in taxi industry
  SIFISO MHKIZE                     2000 and 2011, with a temporary             incidents, though all incident types
                                    small increase between 2007 and             exhibited increasing trends in
   Killed: 29 June 2017             2010. From 2012, however, there was         the province over that period. An
   Location: Richmond,              a sharp increase in the trend, which        increasing trend in political incidents
      KwaZulu-Natal
                                    continued to 2017. Taxi incidents are       in the province continued to bolster
Sifiso Mhkize was a local           the largest contributor to the overall      the overall numbers, with smaller
 councillor, the chairper-          trend in KwaZulu-Natal. The next most       increases in the number of incidents
   son of the Richmond              significant contributor to the trend        linked to organized crime.
   Community Policing               is political incidents, followed by
   Forum, as well as the
forum’s cluster public-re-
lations officer. He was as-
 sassinated in a hail of 18
 bullet shots while on his
  way home from a Com-
  munity Policing Forum
   meeting in July 2017.

                                                      12
The rule of the gun              Assassination Witness

           Trend of annual counts of reported assassination incidents in KwaZulu-Natal by incident type

60.00

50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00

10.00

  00
        2000   2001   2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007   2008    2009   2010   2011   2012   2013   2014   2015   2016   2017

               Taxi

               Organized crime

               Political

               Personal

                                                                13
The rule of the gun      Assassination Witness

                                     Gauteng                                   Eastern Cape
                                     The province saw a general decline        There was a modest declining trend
                                     in the number of annual incidents         in the average annual counts in the
                                     between 2000 and 2011. Then, in           province between 2001 and 2004,
                                     common with the national trend, there     though closer inspection suggests
                                     was an increase in the average annual     this was driven by an unusually high
                                     incident count in the province between    count in 2001 and may not reflect a
                                     2012 and 2017.                            genuinely consistent trend.

                                     As elsewhere, taxi-related incidents      As with the national trend, taxi
                                     are the largest contributor to the        incidents are the largest contributor
                                     overall trend in Gauteng, followed by     to the overall numbers of hits in the
       TALBY FOSTER                  cases we assessed to be associated        Eastern Cape, followed by organized
   Killed: 3 September 2017          with organized crime. In notable          crime and personally motivated
 Location: Katlehong, Gauteng        contrast with other provinces, the        cases. Unlike the national trend,
  Talby Foster was chair of the      annual average number of personal         however, personal incidents are a more
 Reiger Park Taxi Association.       incidents is greater than the             consistent contributor to the overall
He was shot dead in a hit in the     average annual number of political        trend than politically related cases,
early hours of the morning on 3      incidents. The increasing trend in        though the difference between the
                                     Gauteng between 2012 and 2017             two is marginal.
September 2017. Earlier, in May
                                     was dominated by an upswing in the
 2014, Andy Khosa, the chair of
                                     number of taxi-related incidents,         From the end of 2015 to the end of
 the Reiger Park Taxi Associa-       though there was also a small growth      2017, political incidents approximately
tion at the time, was also assas-    in the incidents in the political         quadrupled their contribution to
             sinated.                category.                                 the overall trend and taxi incidents
                                                                               also increased – in this case by a
                                                                               factor of approximately 1.5. The high
                                     Western Cape                              average annual number of incidents
                                                                               in the province in 2017 was driven
                                     In common with other provinces,           by an increase in the average annual
                                     the trend in reported assassination       numbers of political and taxi incidents.
                                     incidents began at a relatively high
                                     point in 2000 and then went into a        The remaining five provinces –
                                     general decline. Between 2004 and         Mpumalanga, North West, Limpopo,
                                     2010 there was a marked increase          Free State and the Northern Cape –
                                     in the average number of hits. After      account for only 10% of the total
                                     2010, the largest contribution to the     number of hits nationwide (i.e. 131
     THOZAMA NJOBE                   overall trend came from trends in taxi-   cases). The numbers of cases in these
                                     related and organized-crime incidents,    provinces are too low to make any
      Killed: 18 July 2017           with organized crime or gang-related      meaningful assessment of trends.
    Location: Fort Beaufort,         incidents taking a more dominant role
          Eastern Cape               from 2015 onwards. There was a sharp
Thozama Njobe was an ANC             increase in 2017 in reported cases
 councillor. She was killed by       in the province, with a total of 26
 16 shots fired at close range.      incidents, compared to four incidents
She was also aware of the plot       in 2016.
 to kill her. Her assassination
  has been linked to her anti-
       corruption stance.

                                                      14
The rule of the gun              Assassination Witness

                                             Assassinations by category
                                             Political hits
                                             Throughout the period, the average count of political assassinations was
                                             dominated by incidents in KwaZulu-Natal. The contribution of Gauteng, the
                                             Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga remained consistently low and
                                             similar in magnitude throughout the period. There were no hits that fall into
                                             this category in North West province until 2009, in the Free State until 2010, in
                                             Limpopo until 2011 or in the Northern Cape until 2016.

Trend in annual political assassination incidents by province

  40.00

  30.00

  20.00

  10.00

    00
          2000   2001   2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007   2008    2009   2010   2011   2012   2013   2014   2015   2016   2017

                 KwaZulu-Natal                               Eastern Cape                             North West

                 Gauteng                                     Mpumalanga                               Northern Cape

                 Western Cape                                Limpopo                                  Free State

                                                                  15
The rule of the gun      Assassination Witness

                                     Hits related to
                                     organized crime
                                     The trend in hits related to organized
                                     crime showed a general decline
                                     between 2000 and 2012. Between
                                     2012 and 2017, there was an upward
                                     swing. The declining national trend in
                                     organized-crime incidents between
                                     2000 and 2012 is attributable
                                     primarily to a decline in the number
                                     of organized-crime incidents in the
       JOE KANYONA                   Western Cape, though it was also
                                     influenced by a modest reduction in
      Killed: 21 June 2015
                                     Gauteng between 2004 and 2007, as
      Location: Cape Town
                                     well as by a decline in KwaZulu-Natal
       Joe Kanyona was a             between 2004 and 2011.
   bouncer at the Beerhouse,
      a bar in Long Street,          The increasing trend that can be seen
     central Cape Town. He           between 2012 and 2017 was driven
      was stabbed to death           mainly by more reports of organized-
    by hitmen while he was           crime-related incidents in KwaZulu-
     on duty. His death has          Natal. However, from 2014 to the end
    been linked to the Cape          of 2017, the continued increase in
    Town nightclub security          the overall trend was also driven by
                                     an increase in the Western Cape. Over
       extortion network.
                                     the period 2015 to 2016, this was
                                     amplified by increases in incidents
                                     in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, and, in
                                     2017, by an increase in Gauteng.

EDWARD SIBUSISO SITHOLE
      Killed: 6 March 2017
       Location: Tongaat,
          KwaZulu-Natal
   Edward Sibusiso Sithole had
  been the Richmond municipal
    manager for five years and
   had just been hired to be the
 municipal manager in uMgeni.
  He was shot dead in a hit at a
   taxi rank in March 2017. Like
  the killing of Thozama Njobe,
 his murder has also been linked
  to his anti-corruption stance.

                                                      16
The rule of the gun        Assassination Witness

                                     Hits with personal
                                     motives
                                     Between 2000 and 2004, there was           the average annual taxi incident count
                                     an increasing trend in incidents of        occurred in almost all provinces over
                                     personally motivated assassinations.       similar periods of time suggests the
                                     This was followed by a declining trend     possibility that some or all of the taxi
                                     from 2004 to 2014, and from 2014           incidents occurring in any one province
                                     to 2017 there was, once again, a           may have links with taxi incidents
                                     slight upward turn in the trend. The       occurring in other provinces.
                                     declining trend between 2004 and
                                     2014 is primarily attributable to fewer
    JAYDE PANAYIOTOU                 recorded hits in Gauteng, though
                                     KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape
      Killed: 21 April 2015
                                     also exhibited a small net decline in
    Location: Port Elizabeth
                                     the same period.
    Jayde Panayiotou was a
    schoolteacher. She went          The slight increasing trend seen in
 missing while waiting outside       2014 to 2017 is due to the combined
 her home for her lift to school.    increases in the numbers of hits in
  Her body was found the next        the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal,
 day. Her husband, Christopher       the Western Cape and Mpumalanga.
  Panayiotou, was found guilty       Although hits ordered for personal
of hiring a hitman to kill her. In   motives tend to be widely covered
November 2017, Panayiotou was        in the media, they constitute only a
                                     small proportion of the total number of
sentenced to life imprisonment.
                                     contract killings in South Africa.

                                     Taxi industry hits
                                     Between 2000 and 2004, the trend
                                     in reported assassination incidents
                                     associated with the taxi industry
                                     shows a decline. The increase and
                                     then subsequent decrease in average
                                     annual counts of taxi incidents
                                     between 2004 and 2012 was primarily
     XOLANI MAPUMA                   driven by a similar trend in the Western
                                     Cape, with substantial contributions
     Killed: 19 March 2016           from both Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal,
     Location: Mdantsane,
                                     and with some incidents recorded
          Eastern Cape
                                     also in the Free State, Limpopo and
  Xolani Mapuma was a taxi           Mpumalanga.
   boss and member of the
Mdantsane East London Taxi           The increasing trend in this category
  Association. He was shot           from 2014 to 2017 is dominated
dead, execution style, in broad      by the growing number of hits in
daylight. He was at the centre       KwaZulu-Natal and, from 2015, in
 of a leadership battle in his       the Eastern Cape. There are more
 taxi association at the time.       modest contributions to the increasing
                                     overall trend from the Free State,
                                     Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West
                                     province. The fact that increases in

                                                      17
The rule of the gun       Assassination Witness

                    Using violence to move up the ranks:
                    Exploring the conflicts that fuel taxi hits
                    To gain a better understanding of        are corruption – seen in the illegal
                    the dynamics behind hits associated      and unregulated issuing of operating
                    with South Africa’s taxi industry, the   licences; police corruption and lack
                    project team conducted interviews        of empathy; lack of consultation
                    to establish the reasons that have       by government and the private
                    fuelled a recent route conflict          sector in the early stages of new
                    between rival industry associations.     developments, which is essential to
                    It also explored the role that hitmen    ensure that all players in the transport
                    play in conflicts between taxi           industry are consulted; and, lastly, the
    Individuals     associations.                            complicated and opaque relationship
                                                             between government and taxi
  who are privy     The mall of violence                     association management, including

  to the killings
                                                             the ownership of taxis by government
                    Although Gauteng is known generally      officials and/or their families.

 and corruption
                    to be notorious for taxi-related
                    violence, two important themes           Besides these factors in the external

     withhold
                    emerged from the case study that         environment, our findings also noted
                    have not yet been explored in the        a number of weaknesses within the

   information      literature surrounding taxi violence
                    in South Africa. First is the role of
                                                             taxi industry that make it especially
                                                             prone to violence: a high level of

because they are    government, which has played both
                    an active and passive role in fuelling
                                                             fragmentation and competition,
                                                             the long-standing propensity in
most likely to be   the violence. This is evident in the
                    development of the Mall of Africa, a
                                                             this industry to use violence to
                                                             settle disputes and to eliminate
 threatened and     major new retail centre in Midrand,
                    which opened in April 2016 and which
                                                             competitors for positions within taxi
                                                             associations.
   intimidated.     has created yet another route over
                    which taxi associations were bound       Our interviews also revealed the
                    to dispute.                              increasing influence that hitmen
                                                             exert on this industry and the degree
                    The bone of contention surrounding       to which men of violence have
                    the Mall of Africa continues to be       advanced in the taxi industry. It also
                    unbridled competition for lucrative      emerged that individuals who are
                    routes, which has sparked conflict       privy to the killings and corruption
                    between rival taxi associations          withhold information because they
                    operating in the area, ATA and           are most likely to be threatened and
                    ARMSTA. The nub of the issue here        intimidated or because, in some
                    is said to be operating permits.         cases, police officers handling the
                    Interviews suggest that the key          matters are alleged to be indirectly
                    problems with the state response         involved in the killings. 

                                      18
The rule of the gun         Assassination Witness

                    The vanishing hitmen                         protection from well-armed private
                                                                 security companies. One of the
                    While trying to ascertain the causes of      respondents said that such security
                    taxi disputes and killings, it emerged       measures were needed to protect
                    that taxi bosses in Gauteng often hire       taxi businesses from hitmen who
                    hitmen from KwaZulu-Natal (known as          are allegedly hired to eliminate
                    izinkabi) to carry out assassinations in     competitors. Others were of the view
                    taxi conflicts. These assassins, hired       that the security measures around
                    from across the provincial border,           the taxi ranks and association
                    have a particular utility for the taxi       premises were put in place to deal
                    bosses: discretion. They carry out           with the unreasonable demands of
                    the hit and immediately disappear            the hitmen. In such circumstances,
                    back to the rural obscurity of their         taxi bosses have been said to give
  Taxi bosses       province to help avoid being detected
                    by law-enforcement agencies. These
                                                                 hitmen security jobs, so that they do
                                                                 not enforce their demands. Offering
have been said      izinkabi are believed to originate from      them a full-time job neutralizes
                    remote rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal,         the threat. This way, hitmen have
to give hitmen      particularly Msinga, making it more          muscled their way into employment

 security jobs,
                    difficult for them to be identified or       in the taxi industry. Researchers
                    traced than would be the case for a          were told about several cases where

  so that they
                    local hitman. Their role in Gauteng is       hitmen had killed taxi owners to
                    twofold: killing and then vanishing.         create fear within the taxi industry

do not enforce
                                                                 or the associations. Once they have
                    By contrast, izinkabi operating in           made people fear for their lives, they

their demands.      KwaZulu-Natal appear to play a more
                    conspicuous and powerful role – as
                                                                 then provide them with security –
                                                                 in a circuitous system that can be

 Offering them      enforcers – in their own province’s taxi
                    environment. They tend to remain
                                                                 regarded as extortion.

 a full-time job    in the urban centres, particularly in
                    hostels, and when they need money
                                                                 For more information on this subject,
                                                                 see Azwi Netshikulwe, Violence begets

neutralizes the     they enforce their demands, such as
                    extorting a taxi from a boss for whom
                                                                 violence: How hitmen transform the
                                                                 taxi industry and empower themselves,
     threat.        they carried out a hit. This is said to be
                    why hitmen emerged as taxi owners in
                                                                 (forthcoming) and Ncedo Mngqibisa,
                                                                 ‘Fertile routes’: How the government
                    their own right or as security heavies       and private sector fuel taxi violence
                    in the province’s taxi industry.             (forthcoming).

                    The role of private
                    security: From enforcer to
                    employee
                    In KwaZulu-Natal in particular, taxi
                    associations are known to source

                                      19
The rule of the gun       Assassination Witness

Assassinations by gender, method and location
                                Gender
                                An overview of all incidents in which gender was recorded showed that in 86%
                                of the cases (i.e. 1 135 incidents), the victim was male and in 7% of cases (91
        7% 7%                   incidents) the victims were female. In 7% of the cases (91 incidents), there were
                                both male and female victims.

                                     Female                                 Male and female

                                     Male
        86%

                                Method
                                Firearms were used in 83% (1 090 cases) of the assassinations. In the remaining
                                17% (227 cases), victims were disposed of by, among other methods, stabbing,
                                strangulation, poisoning, beating or bludgeoning and car ‘accidents’.21
     17%

                                     Firearms

                                     Other

        83%

                                Location
                                There is accurate data on the location of the hits in only about 40% of the cases
                                in the database. In the majority of these (63%; 325 cases), the hit took place
         11%                    either inside or outside the victims’ homes. In such incidents, the hit was usually
                                carried out as the victim was arriving home at night. In some cases, the person
                    26%         who hired the hitman provided the killer(s) with access to the target’s home.

                                In 26% (134 incidents) of the cases, the hit was a drive-by shooting – a method
  24%                           often used in politically motivated assassination cases. The remaining 11%
                                (57 cases) occurred at a place of business, including the victim’s office, school
                                (where principals or teachers were targets), shop or taxi rank.
              39%
                                     Drive by                                    Outside home

                                     Inside home                                 Place of business

                                                  20
The rule of the gun              Assassination Witness

                                        Assassinations in the justice system
                                        The database recorded 46 cases               A significant proportion of the cases
                                        of criminal-justice actors who               (five witnesses and three magistrates)
                                        were targeted in hits (i.e. they             in 2000 and 2001 were linked to
                                        were either assassinated or there            vigilante group People Against
                                        were unsuccessful attempts on                Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD), all of
                                        the targets’ lives) over the period          which took place in the Western Cape.
                                        under analysis. These cases include          In 2002 PAGAD’s leader, Abdus Salaam
                                        the assassination/attempted                  Ebrahim, was convicted and sentenced
                                        assassination of magistrates, judges,        to seven years’ imprisonment. Since
                                        attorneys and witnesses in legal             then, PAGAD has had a less publicly
                                        cases. Although it is likely that there      visible presence in Cape Town
                                        were more cases than those captured          and, based on our data, no further
                                        in the database, we nevertheless             assassinations related to the justice
                                        used these as a valid sample to gain         system were connected to PAGAD.
                                        more insight into the phenomenon of
                                        assassinations in South Africa’s legal       Between 2006 and 2011, there was
                                        community. Each case was explored in         a notable decline in cases. A judge,
                                        greater detail in an attempt to gauge        an attorney and two witnesses
                                        how many of them resulted in arrest,         were targeted over this period. Both
                                        prosecution and conviction. Through          assassinations of witnesses happened
                                        interviews with attorneys, prosecutors       in 2008, one in the Eastern Cape and
                                        and court personnel, further insight         the other in Mpumalanga. The judge
                                        was provided into the nature and             was murdered in a contract killing in
                                        extent of the impact of contract             Cape Town – in this case, it was found
                                        killings in the legal profession.            that his wife had arranged the hit.
                                                                                     The attorney, Ian Jordaan, was killed
                                        The time span of the database was            in 2011. He was the lawyer for Lolly
                                        divided into three periods. The period       Jackson, murdered strip-club boss, and
                                        2000 to 2005 experienced the highest         his case has been linked to notorious
                                        number of cases (31): ten magistrates,       underworld figure Radovan Krejcir.
                                        two attorneys and 19 witnesses. Of
                                        these hits, 15 were carried out in the       The period 2012 to 2017 saw a
                                        Western Cape, eight in Gauteng, six in       second, albeit smaller, wave of hits on
                                        KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Eastern         actors within the justice system. There
                                        Cape.                                        was a total of 11 reported cases. Of

                            Overview of hits relating to the justice system, 2000–2017
12
10
 8
 6

 4

 2
 0
     2000   2001   2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007   2008    2009   2010   2011   2012   2013   2014   2015   2016   2017

                                                             21
The rule of the gun       Assassination Witness

                                  these, three were in KwaZulu-Natal         two were beaten to death. As for the
                                  (witnesses), five in the Eastern Cape      remainder, either the method was
                                  (one attorney and four witnesses),         not ascertained, or the incident was
                                  two in Gauteng (witnesses) and one         prevented. The majority of hits were
                                  in the Western Cape (attorney). These      undertaken with firearms.
                                  hits were more dispersed and mainly
                                  targeted witnesses. Of the hits on
                                  attorneys, one was carried out in          Investigations, arrests
                                  Mthatha in October 2016 and one on         and prosecutions
                                  a Cape Town attorney in November
                                  2016.                                      Cases were followed up by tracing
                                                                             them through media searches
VICTOR MABUNDA                    No cases of hits or attempted hits on      (although this has limitations given the
                                  magistrates or judges were recorded        length of time over which cases may
 Killed: 10 January 2018
                                  for this time period. However, in          run and the fact that media reporting
         Location:
Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng         January 2018 a Gauteng magistrate,         can be uneven in less high-profile
                                  Victor Mabunda, was killed in a hit.       cases).
  Victor Mabunda was
                                  Witnesses were targeted in a variety
   assassinated in his
                                  of cases, including those connected to     In the category of magistrates and
driveway as he returned
                                  gangs, the taxi industry and violence      judges, there were 11 cases in total.
   home one evening.              at the Glebelands Hostel in Durban. In     Three of these resulted in convictions;
  The hit was allegedly           one case, the victim had witnessed a       three cases had further reporting on
 linked to cases he was           housebreaking; another was a witness       the investigation, but there was no
   presiding over. Two            in a case against Krejcir.                 further information on whether there
suspects and the alleged                                                     was an arrest. In five of the cases,
    hitman have been
        arrested.
                                  Location of hits and                       there was no further reporting in the
                                                                             media.
                                  lethality
                                                                             In the category of attorneys, there
                                  Of the targeted magistrates, eight of      were five cases in total, three of which
                                  the 11 cases took place at the victims’    had no further coverage in the media.
                                  home or outside their home, one at         The assassination of Ian Jordaan,
                                  work and one while driving. Of the         as mentioned, was linked to Krejcir,
                                  attorneys, four of the five hits took      although this case has not made its
                                  place at the victims’ home and one in      way to court yet.
                                  a car. In the witness category, where
                                  data is available, of the 30 cases, six    The 2016 assassination of attorney
                                  were carried out at home and four          Noorudien Hassan has received
                                  were drive-by shootings. Of the cases      significant media attention, as
                                  in which a location was identified,        he represented various notorious
                                  the most common was at the victim’s        organized-crime figures in Cape Town.
                                  home or outside the home.                  However, to date, no one has been
                                                                             arrested for his murder. This case had
                                  Not all the hits against magistrates       a significant impact on the criminal-
                                  resulted in the death of the target: out   defence fraternity in Cape Town. As
                                  of a total of 11 cases, four died, five    one attorney said, ‘Hassan’s death
                                  were shot but survived, one hit was        had a massive ripple. He was very well
                                  prevented, and one was only a plot. All    known and very well liked. … It caused
                                  five of the attorneys died: four were      a massive effect in the legal fraternity
                                  shot and one was set alight. In the        because it hit home that this could
                                  witness category, 24 of the 30 victims     happen to anyone.’22
                                  died, four were shot but survived and
                                  two attempted hits were prevented.         In the category of witnesses, there
                                  Of the witnesses, 23 were shot and         were 30 cases in total. However, there

                                                    22
The rule of the gun         Assassination Witness

                                   were only four convictions, three          awaiting trial. He told her to drop
                                   arrests where the suspect is awaiting      the case or he would ‘use one of his
                                   trial and one arrest where the charges     connections on the outside’.24
                                   were later dropped. The majority of
                                   cases were not covered further by the      A criminal-defence attorney said
                                   media and there could, therefore, be       that the state is often negligent with
                                   more convictions than were reported.       regard to witness protection and that
                                                                              in one case the defence attorney
                                   In summary, according to media             had accidentally received a copy
                                   reports, only three of the cases of hits   of the witness list, which is meant
                                   on judges or magistrates resulted          to be confidential to help protect
                                   in convictions, none of the cases on       witnesses.25 When asked about the
NOORUDIEN HASSAN                   attorneys have resulted in a conviction    effectiveness of witness protection,
                                   and only four of the 30 hits on            practitioners said that it is flawed
 Killed: 7 November 2016
                                   witnesses have resulted in convictions.    and inadequate. Notably, witness
   Location: Cape Town
                                                                              protection is provided only until the
 Noorudien Hassan was a                                                       point at which a witness has testified –
criminal defence attorney.         Impact of hits in the                      after that they are out in the open and
   He was assassinated             justice system                             vulnerable. Witnesses are also often
   outside his home in a                                                      reluctant to join the witness protection
   drive-by shooting in            The impact of contract killings            programme, as they might be seen
  November 2016. There             targeting those in the South African       as betraying their community. It also
    had been previous              criminal-justice sphere is not limited     means that they are removed from
 attempts on his life. His         to the victims or the cases they are       the community and there is still no
  murder could be linked           or were connected to. Their effect is      guarantee that they will be safe even
                                   felt much more deeply, as these hits       by joining the programme.26
  to various underworld
                                   are representative of the broader
 activities/cases. To date,
                                   issue of intimidation in the justice       Criminal-defence attorneys are known
 no arrests for his murder         system. The fact these hits occur, and     to adopt certain tactics to avoid
     have been made.               that fact that others in the criminal-     being caught in the middle of criminal
                                   justice system are aware of them,          conflict. One of those tactics is to
                                   creates a pervasive environment of         make sure they don’t take on clients
                                   fear. The message that this category       who are from rival gangs or criminal
                                   of contract killings communicates          groups. Following the death of Hassan,
                                   is that there is a very real possibility   fear among Cape Town attorneys for
                                   that the same violence may well be         their lives is said to have escalated.
                                   applied to someone else in the system.     One attorney said he had acquired a
                                   This constant threat of violence is        licensed firearm for self-defence. In
                                   tantamount to the capturing of the         response to protecting witnesses in
                                   justice system by criminal forces.         sexual-offence cases, a prosecutor
                                                                              said that special courts for hearing
                                   From interviews with legal                 sexual-offence cases are currently the
                                   practitioners, it is clear that hits       best option. In normal courts, victims,
                                   in the justice system have serious         witnesses and the accused sit next
                                   ramifications. For example, one            to one another as they await trial,
                                   prosecutor estimates that in 50%           providing ample opportunity for the
                                   to 60% of her cases, the witness is        accused to intimidate the witness into
                                   actively intimidated by the accused        not testifying. In specialised courts,
                                   or an agent of the accused, and this       however, the victims and accused
                                   often results in the witness refusing to   are kept apart, providing a safer
                                   testify or dropping the case.23 In one     environment to prepare for testifying.
                                   case, the female victim of a sexual        This results in a better functioning of
                                   offence received a phone call from         the justice system.27
                                   the accused while he was in prison

                                                     23
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