EDITORIAL | Killer cartels gaining firmer foothold by the day - TimesLIVE

Thato Molosankwe got in the way of the wrong person. And now he is dead. He was a brother, a son and a community activist. Now he is a statistic.

It is unclear exactly why Molosankwe was targeted. He was an outspoken voice for the Mahikeng community, leading marches against gender-based violence and speaking out about the importance of men being good dads.

But behind a community who loved him lurked an ominous shadow. Molosankwe was gunned down at his home in Lomanyaneng on Wednesday morning. His family says the killers tracked him and parked down the road from his home, waiting for him to get to his room before coming in and opening fire.

These brazen, cold-blooded assassinations have become all too commonplace in South Africa. They are mostly orchestrated by masterminds who are far away from the crime scene, hiding behind multiple layers of middlemen. Often even the hired guns do not know who gave the initial order.

Rumbi Matamba, the east African head of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), told the Daily Maverick in April that “not a day goes by without an assassination in South Africa”.

That is a chilling statement. It reveals how South Africa is on the edge of an abyss, fast gaining traction as a country where life is cheap and people can be permanently silenced ― often with no consequence.

GI-TOC says that in the 10 years to 2024, contract killings increased 108%. They are generally divided into three categories: political, the taxi industry and personal.

The trend of hitmen for hire has gained traction since the high-profile murder of Babita Deokaran in 2021. She was killed after uncovering massive looting at Tembisa Hospital.

Since then, many others have followed. Some, like City of Ekurhuleni auditors Simnikiwe Mapini and Mpho Mafole, worked for government. Others, like insolvency practitioners Bouwer van Niekerk and Cloete Murray and his son Thomas, worked in the private sector.

In many of these cases, no arrests have been made. And in the few cases that have made it to court, those charged are the hired guns rather than the people who initiated the crime.

GI-TOC says that in the 10 years to 2024, contract killings increased 108%. They are generally divided into three categories: political, the taxi industry and personal.

The victims are generally silenced because they are in the way of a lucrative tender or deal, or because they have uncovered corruption.

This deadly trend can only be halted with dedicated detective work and strong crime intelligence ― two things that the South African Police Service is sorely lacking. Many detectives are working dozens of cases simultaneously, while the Madlanga commission has painfully exposed how crime intelligence is almost non-existent at the moment.

Our hollowed-out police force is no match for the might of organised, motivated and skilled criminal syndicates, many of whom have for years had the country’s top crime fighters in their pockets.

While passing legislation such as the Whistleblower Protection Bill will help in the fight against this scourge, only a reinvigorated, revamped and highly resourced police force will have any chance of wresting back control from the deadly cartels that are gaining a stronger foothold across the country every day.