Crime Networks and Governance in Cape Town the Quest for Enlightened Responses
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ISS PAPER 262 | AUGUST 2014 Crime networks and governance in Cape Town The quest for enlightened responses Charles Goredema and Khalil Goga Summary The state cannot exercise its authority in many areas of Cape Town where organised crime wields significant power, has capitalised on economic opportunities, and can manipulate and corrupt the state. Solutions to eradicate organised criminal networks generally do not acknowledge the underlying context that sustains them and also stress stronger policing and repression, while paying insufficient attention to deficiencies in other state capacities. State interventions need to be more holistic, more carefully considered and should acknowledge that much organised crime reflects a dysfunctional society in Cape Town. Without an overarching strategy of reform, organised crime will continue to plague affected communities. THE INABILITY OF THE STATE to Governance implications to them rather than formal structures. exercise its authority is noticeable Furthermore, polarisation in the political Organised crime wields significant power in many areas of Cape Town. landscape means that political allegiance and, without necessarily becoming part These areas are often concentrated influences loyalty and a distrust of the of the formal structures, criminals have in non-white areas, with nightlife state at various levels. capitalised on economic opportunities entertainment being a noticeable to manipulate and corrupt the state. If Enlightened responses exception. However, those that are the state is ‘replaced’ or exists parallel Solutions to eradicate organised criminal most vulnerable include businesses to informal authority, an opposition to networks do not take into account the run by foreign nationals, who democratic governance is created. underlying context that empowers and are unlikely to ask the state for The growth of criminal governance sustains them. These solutions are protection and often instead turn to is worsened by low employment and distinguishable by their preoccupation powerful people (including criminals) lack of opportunity for much of the with stronger policing and repression, for this purpose. Yet even those who population. Increases in migration and while paying insufficient attention to are less vulnerable are more likely to rapid urbanisation have strained the deficiencies in other state capacities. turn to private security companies ability of the state to provide broad Because criminal networks are than the police, illustrating a opportunities for participation in the successful in challenging state authority weakness in capacity, inefficiency economy. Growing informal centres of in grey areas of the economy, there is a and a distrust of state authority. power attract some residents to look need to identify these areas. Studying PAPER the needs of the youth in particular will system and economy than is often indicate where vacuums are to be found. assumed. Policies to address organised crime should therefore be grounded in Crime is dependent on labour and an understanding of both how criminal markets. The state and business should networks are organised and the basis cooperate to identify the markets for their resilience within the given that serve and sustain crime, with the socioeconomic fabric. purpose of influencing these markets. Youth should be provided with pre- The phases of Cape Town’s evolution emptive state interventions before they include colonial conquest and turn to criminality, including active steps administration, slavery, and apartheid- INEQUALITY IN CAPE TOWN to prepare them to participate in the era segregation. The baggage inherited economy. by the city is typified by the glaring Many of the problems that plague Cape Town are particular to previously disadvantaged areas. During the Khayelitsha Commision, startling It is important for the state to realise that much statistics were released: organised crime is a symptom of a dysfunctional ONLY society in Cape Town 23,46% State interventions also need to be disparities among its inhabitants in terms more carefully considered. Repressive of income, living conditions and access OF CASES REPORTED TO THE policing often marginalises people further to services, which in turn influence the HARARE POLICE STATION IN and criminal activity is therefore more way in which the formal systems of KHAYELITSHA GO TO COURT accepted. While certain issues such as governance in the city are perceived. abalone and rock lobster quotas are These disparities continue to follow the highly politicised and difficult to manage, centuries-old racial cleavages, with the 3,38% it is evident that the state has suffered majority of the population subsisting in OF THOSE CASES RESULTED from numerous high-profile failures in poverty. While poverty does not always IN A CONVICTION this regard. State interventions need lead to criminality, in Cape Town poor to involve a number of government neighbourhoods are exposed to the AT SAPS HARARE, 66 departments and increasing public creep of informal systems and structures DETECTIVES OFTEN CARRY participation. of governance. To the extent that such OVER AS MANY AS systems and structures are established It is also important for the state to realise by or depend on criminal networks, they that much organised crime is a symptom may be termed criminal governance. 2 300 of a dysfunctional society in Cape Town. UNRESOLVED CASES High levels of drug abuse, broken family Criminal governance can be defined as parallel sources of authority managed units and low employment are the THE POLICE STATION IN by criminal networks. This does not root cause of the continuing presence HARARE HAS A DETECTIVE- necessarily mean that criminal networks of the criminal economy. Without an TO-CITIZEN RATIO OF seek to supplant the state, but rather overarching strategy of reform, organised to exist alongside state structures, crime will continue to plague affected providing some goods and services communities. 1:2 626 (including illegal or illicit ones) that the This paper seeks to explain the enduring state does not provide – including AN AFFLUENT COMMUNITY nature of organised crime in Cape Town employment. Concurrently, core actors SUCH AS SEA POINT HAS and explore the impact of crime networks in crime networks become alternative A RATIO OF on systems and formal structures of sources of authority that provide (and governance. It confirms the findings of are even asked to provide) dispute 1:435 earlier research that crime networks may resolution mechanisms and protection. be more integrated into the sociopolitical The capacity of crime networks to use 2 CRIME NETWORKS AND GOVERNANCE IN CAPE TOWN: THE QUEST FOR ENLIGHTENED RESPONSES violence increases their social control networks, and the impact of their actions drug markets and/or continued weak or and legitimacy.1 Crime networks, on governance. Failure to do so leads to inefficient state interventions. which are encountered in Cape Town incomplete solutions. Assessing criminal networks mostly in the form of gangs, do not Research suggests that there is a and criminal entrepreneurs exist for the benefit of the community. multitude of various criminal networks This paper argues that such networks Using social network analysis (SNA), and criminals that are tightly or loosely cannot, however, be removed from one can analyse intersections between structured and can vary in the crimes the communities in which they exist by professional criminals and part-time they commit and in terms of their criminal justice measures alone. collaborators working outside core political and social influence. Taming criminal markets. It is possible to illustrate The paper engages with the concept of organised crime requires a concomitant how what is often referred to in the ‘criminal governance’ as a theoretical variety of methods. media as the ‘underworld’ intersects with and descriptive tool. It describes and Rather than providing a snapshot picture what could be called the ‘upper world’. contextualises the impact of organised of criminal networks, it is important Furthermore: criminality on governance in Cape Town to draw on historical information on using case studies drawn from drug • SNA illustrates interactions among the growth of organised crime. Links trafficking, the trade in illegal abalone various actors in a criminal network, and connections among criminals and and rock lobster, the rise of taxi violence, apart from illustrating who is core to between the state and gangs were and protection racketeering. The paper the network. established during a period of over 40 also discusses the utility of social years. Links and markets were forged • It can also identify how the network network analysis to determine the reach in the apartheid period. Apartheid extends into legitimate political and of crime networks. spatial planning and the conflicts of the economic realms. The Jackie Selebi Definitions and concepts liberation struggle presented criminal corruption case is a prime example of gangs with opportunities to secure how a criminal broker like Glenn Agliotti Contending that organised crime should strategic positions in certain locations could position himself to facilitate not simply be regarded as ‘parasitic’, and businesses in Cape Town. Important the connections linking criminals, the paper uses Standing’s conception connections between criminals and the businesspeople and high-level officials. of ‘criminal governance’ to explain state, on the one hand, and criminals why organised