Willem Els: Mkhwanazi’s Mexico warning, the R1-billion bust - but no boots on the ground

[00:00:09]Fears are growing that South Africa is turning into another Bogotaa following that 1 billion rand recent drug bust. With me is Villim Al of the Institute for Security Studies. Welcome Villim.

[00:00:25]>> Hello uh Bruce.

[00:00:28]But let me remind our viewers what General Nolanda Mockinazi said about drug trafficking that warning.

[00:00:37]>> Sorry. Yeah. I think we are here today uh because of what happened about the almost a year ago on the 6th of July when he had that uh that infamous and that really uh uh that that groundbreaking interview where he uh came up with the allegations and the center of those allegations were that the drug cartels that are actually taking over the police government and and and and that they are having it their way and uh of course we saw the the ATO committee we saw what is going on in in the Madlango Commission at the moment. It revealed a lot. It shocked really it shook the nation. Uh I don't think the revelations uh that came out there is is is complete. I think it's it's maybe the the ears of the hippo. Uh and uh and we will have to to to look at it further. So that prompted us to to look at you know in the past two years we had v various uh uh uh candine laboratories that were were discovered.

[00:01:33]I mean the one at Troubles uh almost two billion rand worth of precursors and so on and then uh we saw the one in Stanaton we saw the latest one near Renberg uh and uh and and and what happened there is what we didn't experience previously was the presence of the cooks. Now the cooks uh as I refer to them are your your your your Mexican cartels that are sending their chemists here to come and and and and mix the and prepare the the the the the drugs and that is mainly your your methamins your tick and then also what is being prepared in South Africa is uh is your and that is your oruga that is your heroin very low grade heroin that is mixed with uh with uh with cutings uh and some of them they say even even uh chlorine baking soda and and and and household bleaches. So so it is it is very very dangerous but also very addictive and it makes it very cheap.

[00:02:43]So, so those are the drugs that that we see that that that came to the fourth.

[00:02:48]But I think what we we we we focus on today is you know uh uh South Africa is in a unique position where ever since the 50s when they started to manufacture mandrex uh and mandrex was administered it was it was prescribed etc. But by the 70s they they started to move away from it etc. And it became an abused drug here in South Africa where we are currently one of if not the only country in the world where they are really still a very good there's still a very strong market for Mandra. Now why is that? That is a question that we're trying to answer today. H I was just going to ask you the rest of the world moved on but Mandra has stayed popular very popular in South Africa and the latest drug bust proved that once again.

[00:03:42]>> Yeah. You know uh uh there there are various reasons for that and uh uh the first one is that you know your methical loan that is being used to prepare uh the the the uh the mandra it it it can be locally manufactured they can mix it here or they can smuggle it in like what they did when they did the bust of the just over 700 kilome kilograms at at bitebridge about about a month ago. So, so it is the freely availability of of the precursor uh and and also the relative ease to prepare the mandrex in your in your laboratories. So what they then do is they would take a the the gl they prepare it they mix it and then they they actually uh set it into a pole. So is it's like a round tablet and uh and then they sell it. It is safe. It is easy to manufacture. It's not easy to to to to detect it is it is small they can move large quantities etc etc but it because of what we see in in in especially the western capes on the flats uh uh in the northern cape parts of hoteng eastern cape and so on we see especially part of your your gang culture it is very strong and and you must understand that when you use your drugs for instance if you use your your methopetamines like your your trick.

[00:05:05]That's a upper makes you feel good and and and especially hop as well. It makes you feel good. But now the guy he took this and he has to go go to work. He has to get a downer. And this is what Mandrean does. They've taken them Mandrex and then they scrape it. Uh they don't use a whole tablet. They scrape it up to six to sometimes nine times. So it's nine uses for one tablet. If a tablet sells for about 60 bucks, that that's quite quite quite a cheap dosage that you that you that you can prepare for yourself and they mix it then typically with with with dha also sometimes with tobacco but dha is is is the most uh popular one and and then they smoke it. It calms them down. It mellows them out and they can operate again. So that is where your uppers and your downers where it comes in and uh and because of the price if you look at the price of of of tick uh it it it really it almost halfed in price after they started to discover all these uh these uh clinstein labs because not of they busted one lab now but because you know if you look at a rule of thumb with drugs you never know how many got away and how many you you counted because of the nature of it. So the rule of thumb is about 30% is intercepted. So 70% of them is still out here. And then you if you just look at the sheer quantities of what they discovered at the Clanistan labs, it means that there must be an abundance of these these these these drugs not only for for local consumption but of course also for export is when it comes to your to your to your methamphetamines and so on. So, so but the difference between the two we do not find a lot of evidence that your mandre is also exported. So what we found here that locally those are being consumed because of the vibrant market that has been here since the 70s.

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[00:07:16]>> Now, that big hole that came into South Africa was intercepted on the South African side of the Zimbabwean border.

[00:07:22]Do you know whether that was as a result of a tip off? One has to wonder how many of those trucks or vehicles had not come through before then.

[00:07:33]>> Yeah. Yeah. Normally, typically how it works, you know, you will get them and they say in in the in a statement that it that it originated from from Malawi.

[00:07:41]So from Malawi it must have come through either Tanzania or it was manufactured locally there the precursor or it was was imported through Tanzania or northern Mosmbique. So we don't know how far that goes but what we found in in the statement is that they said it was intelligencedriven operation.

[00:07:59]Now for that drugs to cross into Zimbabwe, it had to move through through the Malawian border and customs and security through the into the Zimbabwean uh uh uh border. Then it was transported across the country to towards Bbridgeidge where it had to clear their customs. It was checked there by their side. And I can tell you now if you look at the detection equipment that they have on the Zimbabwean site, it is by far superior than what South Africa has got uh they they received an um a huge amount of funding, training and equipment from from from especially America in order to cope that. So how did it pass through there and was only intercepted in South Africa? So that is the one hand we said it was it was because of of of of intelligence but also I think it was because South Africa also upgraded on some of the equipment and they started to use it. we see that uh that uh Mr. Mashu from the from the from the BME BMA he's got a new plan he's got this strategy he he's really with the limited resources that they are doing they are making singing roads so that is just an indication for us that some of the measures put in place are starting to pay off >> now the general the KZN provincial commissioner warned that unless drug trafficking was dealt w with that South Africa would or could become at other Mexico. You've just done this huge drug study. What are your recommendations?

[00:09:35]>> Yeah, I think I think you know we should heed to to his caution. Of course, they got much more information that we will ever have. They have the intelligence and and and and all the other reports.

[00:09:44]They have the the sharing of intelligence and that is what what is important for us because it is transnational. the the busts on your especially your cocaine your you're at the airport and and and so on you know that is because of your of your sharing of information intelligence between service to service etc etc and we must commend them on that so so what what they tell us if they caution on that they must have good information on that now what we see if we look at South Africa and we look at our crime rate our crime rate our criminality index we are number two in Africa If you look at uh at at at the murder rate uh in terms of of of murders, we constantly feature in the top 10 in the world. Uh where are the other countries that also feature there with us are typically your South American countries where you we you you just mentioned that and that is part of the culture that goes the environment that is created by this drugs and by the drug smuggling. Now what happens is from South America your drugs is being fed to to their markets that's up to America and to to to to Europe. So when they started to make it more difficult for them to use those routes they they take the route of least resistance they went to the central Africa route and then they moved what they call the southern Africa route. So that is why we see South Africa became a transit hub for these type of of of drugs and uh and and and the reason for that is because we created conditions due to the criminality levels and the tolerance to crime by and and the failure of good governance against it. We sit with a problem that we created conditions that are extremely conducive for these big cartels to operate within South Africa with virtual impunity. So so what we need to do is in the first place uh and and and and we must commend the the the acting minister. We see that he's active in looking at very good strategies in order to curb. He's taking from the top looking at guidance on the operational level. We're sitting with severe challenges. we've got most of the the senior commissioners of police that are being arrested or suspended or so on. So we've got a power vacuum there and and so on. But what we saw is with the appointment of General Makundazi uh uh to to to head the organized crime desk.

[00:12:11]We think that there might be now now some some improvement.

[00:12:16]But what we see you know when when you look at this is not something that was created over over uh uh uh the past four or five years. It came a long way. It came along with a huge disinvestment into the capability of intelligence and the police in order to curb these crimes because the better they are, the more difficult it is for these these cartels that are being protected to operate in South Africa. So what we need to do, we need to look at the strategy. Then we need to come up with a very good operational plan including every role player. The bullies cannot do it alone.

[00:12:52]You know when it comes to drug your drivers for drugs why is it is it is it so so so prominent in the western cave for instance the socioeconomic all those things the police cannot fix that so we need to look at all of society all of departmental approach in order to work on a strategy and an operational plan but what we saw and and I think that is that is uh maybe one of the the biggest challenges is the severe disinvestment uh in in in in your capability in the police intelligence wise as well as operational. We do not have goods on the ground. We do not have sufficient uh equipment and and and and and and the infrastructure to to to do that. They have to re relook at that. And then thirdly, we need to look at the mentorship program. You know, you sit with a lot of people. We saw the more experienced people. We saw the people in the Madanga Commission that came over goods, the ones that care, the one that make a difference. We need to support them. But those guys won't be here forever. We need to bring in the mentorship program under them. What is going to happen the day that they leave and they retire and so on. So it must be a short, a medium and a longterm uh plan that we need that we have. But we have to start with the infrastructure and investing in this capability. William, when will the paper on your study be ready for public release?

[00:14:21]>> Okay. Yeah, we we do a uh what they call is refer to it as an ISS today. It's an opinion piece that is uh that is evidence-based and uh we release one one per day at from the ISS. So we've been informed today but by Tuesday, Wednesday next week they would like to have a look uh to to publish this one.

[00:14:42]>> Okay. anything in that um report or in in that paper that you would like to add to our interview today?

[00:14:51]>> Yeah, I think I think what what what is important uh is you know the we cannot blame the police alone. Uh you know the mandate to curb this to investigate to prevent is is given to the police but it's an impossible mandate. The police cannot fix all the problems of the society. So we need to to take a hands and I think that is where the minister really came in with his approach where he's he's including on a provincial level he's looking at all the different role players in order to make sure that all of them can contribute because at the end of the day it's our children our children are the targets and it's their future that is in our hands.

[00:15:33]>> Thank you. That was William Al institute for security studies speaking to me Christine at business news. Thank you, Venom.

[00:15:42]>> Thank you, Chris.

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