South Africa is under siege

South Africa should expect an increase in extortion mafias as they thrive amid weak laws to fight organised crime.

This is according to criminology professor Dr Nirmala Gopal from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who highlighted that South Africa’s lack of enforcement provides a fertile ground for extortion mafias.

Speaking to Newsroom Afrika, Gopal said organised crime and extortion mafias pose an increasing threat in South Africa.

She attributed their rise to weak legal frameworks and insufficient law enforcement. “What we are seeing playing itself out now in South Africa is an increase in extortion mafias.”

Gopal added that the current legal environment “allows them to flourish” due to its inadequacies in effectively addressing the problem.

According to Gopal, extortion mafias are not a new phenomenon and have existed around the world for centuries.

However, she stressed that the South African context is particularly concerning because of the limited appetite to curb the issue.

“The appetite to stop mafias has not been as intensive as the appetite of these groups to continue with it,” she said, pointing to the intersection of extortion with broader issues of corruption and organised crime.

She suggested that those involved in extortion networks likely benefit from corruption across multiple levels, which further impedes effective intervention.

Gopal noted that one of the country’s most pressing challenges is the inadequacy of law enforcement responses.

“Perhaps our law enforcement is not strong enough to actually arrest this,” she said, cautioning that without stronger enforcement measures, the problem is likely to escalate.

The absence of a coordinated, robust law enforcement approach creates fertile ground for extortion mafias to thrive, particularly in industries like construction and transportation, where these criminal networks are already deeply entrenched.

Gopal highlighted the importance of multi-agency collaboration in tackling extortion mafias, pointing to a recent high-profile arrest as a positive step.

“This multi-stakeholder collaboration has yielded good fruit,” she said, referring to the joint efforts of various national law enforcement agencies.

She stressed, however, that successful prosecution is key. “Going forward now, what’s going to be important is how the legal authorities actually prepare and prosecute cases.”

However, Gopal added that the problem of these types of mafias is likely far worse than people realise due to underreporting.

She described how extortion operates on multiple levels, from the micro level—where the most vulnerable individuals are affected—to the macro level, which involves high-level political and organised crime networks.

At the micro level, mafia-style groups take advantage of spaza shop owners, local businesses, and computers that rely on public transport like taxis.

At the macro level, organised gangs hit multi-billion rand infrastructure projects and essential services, as seen in reports of the construction and water-tanker mafias.

Over the past two years, organised crime and the number of these mafia types have exploded, with the government even acknowledging the problem.

Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson has declared war on construction mafias, while these groups have even threatened others.

Parliament’s Water and Sanitation Portfolio Committee chairperson Robert Mashego said he had been threatened multiple times by the mafia groups after visiting various sites to ensure the proper processes were being followed.

“They’ve said to me, we’ve heard talk of stopping things [use of tankers], so don’t come here again; this is our business,” he said.

“At the micro level, it is perhaps where we see underreporting, so it’s quite invisible at that level, but of course very impactful,” said Gopal.

“Empowerment and awareness are critical to ensure that we have more reporting of this type of crime,” she said.

She also stressed the need for sustained, collective efforts to combat the pervasive influence of extortion mafias in South Africa.