Sociology and Anthropology 3(12): 649-655, 2015 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/sa.2015.031203 Organised Crime in South Africa since Transition to Democracy Kholofelo A Mothibi * , Cornelis J Roelofse, Atlas H Maluleke Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Limpopo, South Africa Copyright©2015 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract This paper presents extend of the spread of organised crime in South Africa. The purpose of the paper is to highlight how transition to democracy added fuel for the growth of organised crime in South Africa. Political changes in South Africa provided openings for criminals which had not existed previously. When apartheid ended, border controls were weakened, thus creating potential areas of operation for organised crime. The paper used secondary data, collected from various scholarly documents on organised crime in South Africa. Findings reveal that organised crime was transformed from a domestic to an international phenomenon and from a law and order problem to a national and international security threat. Organised crime is a major threat to social stability and economic growth. It is also viewed as a major impediment to good governance and security in Africa. Policing organised crime relies heavily on the ability of the police agencies to gather intelligence on groups, activities and individuals and their contacts. The paper draws conclusions from the findings and makes recommendations on measures that can be put in place to reduce organised crime problem in South Africa. Keywords Organised Crime, Political Transition, Democracy, Syndicates 1. Introduction The initial signs of organised crime in South Africa can be attributed to the so called Chinese Traid societies. The Chinese Traid had drawn the attention of the police during 1970s when they were involved in the shark fin trade, smuggling of products from endangered species such as rhino horn, and illegal gambling operations. According to Gastrow [1] in 1990, organised crime groups had led to the growing trend of the crime problem in South Africa. In respond to the organised crime problems, the police established a national Organised Crime Intelligence Unit. The transitional phase of the political dispensation in South Africa created, for a number of years, a policing vacuum. Comparative evidence suggests that organised crime syndicates develop most rapidly in periods of political transition, when government resources are concentrated in certain areas only and gaps materialize in which organised criminal groups may function. Likewise, Shaw [2] reveals that the growth of organised crime in Russia has been a feature of political transition to democratic order. One of the most prominent cases in point is that of the former Soviet Union. The collapse of communist rule allowed the development of virtually thousands of criminal organisations involving current and former members of the establishment. In South Africa, comparable forces have also been taking place. Before the demise of the apartheid regime, South Africa was not considered to have had an organised crime problem. However, Shaw [2] gave the impression that the organised crime existed during the apartheid era although at a relatively low extent and diverse fashion. This was only partly true: in the Western Cape organised gangs had forged links with foreign criminal organisations in East Asia in order to obtain narcotics commonly known as mandrax. Scholars argued that these gangs were often used to target anti-apartheid activists in exchange for police turning a blind eye to their activities. In addition, towards the late 1980s, racially based organised crime developed in the form of “Boer Mafia”. This crime syndicate was involved in a variety of criminal activities mostly the smuggling of weapons and disruptions of the anti-apartheid opponents. In general, however, during the apartheid regime, organised criminal activities were poorly developed, given the fact that the country was cut off from the rest of the world because of its racial-based state policies. The arrival of democracy in the country heralded an increase in organised criminal activity. South African Police Services indicate that when apartheid ended, border controls were weakened, thus creating potential areas of operation for organised crime. Scholars point out that, similar problems also occurred at a time when transitional criminal operations were expanding, for example, East Asian, Nigerian and East European syndicates bought into