MANDY WIENER: Act before judges and journalists are next

Organised crime in Mexico is notoriously violent. Assassinations have been rife for years, and journalists and judges are often targeted.

According to a report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime, quoting civil society organisation Article 19, 163 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000. In 2022, Mexico recorded an attack against journalists or media houses every 13 hours. Article 19 found that 42% of the attacks are committed by government officials, followed by criminal actors and private entities, but it is the state itself that poses the greatest threat to journalists. And most of these attacks go unpunished.

The Global Initiative also reported on South Africa’s commercial market for violence in 2023. That market has become even more lucrative of late, with an evident increase in targeted assassinations.

Fortunately, in South Africa, journalists and judges have not yet been targeted, as is the case in Mexico. But all the warning signs are there.

Journalist and author Jeff Wicks, who has bravely exposed the corruption networks at Tembisa Hospital and some of the potential motives behind Babita Deokaran’ killing, has had to take additional measures to protect himself. On his own acknowledgement, he has become hyper vigilant and security conscious.

“What has become clear is that those who oppose corruption, either in law enforcement or its fringes, are no longer protected by status. Officials, liquidators, auditors and police officers are in the firing line. It is a matter of time before this danger and threat extends to journalists who, through their work, perform the same function - exposing wrongdoing,” Wicks told me. A prescient warning.

Two decadesago, when I started reporting on the underworld and organised crime, I did not feel the level of threat to my personal safety that exists today. I interviewed mobsters and confessed hit men and never felt a legitimate concern for my safety. The environment today is starkly different.

The code amongst gangsters has fallen away. Criminals have morphed into politicians, and there is more at stake. Not only have criminals become more violent, but accountability has declined. Trust in the police to protect us has also atrophied.

While we are not yet at the level of Mexico, the recent assassinations of insolvency attorney Bouwer van Niekerk, auditor Mpho Mafole and public prosecutor Tracy Brown in Gqeberha are a chilling warning of a blatant escalation and realisation that anyone is now a target.

Devastatingly, the steep increase has also stemmed from a failure to hold anyone accountable for hits on high-profile individuals such as Deokaran or liquidators Cloete and Thomas Murray.

Cloete’s brother Louis Murray, in a voicenote on The Midday Report this week, expressed his desperation. “As soon as someone gets close to something, they just get taken out, so what’s the point?”he lamented.

Wicks has laid the breadcrumbs for investigators to follow in the Deokaran case. Kyle Cowan has done the same in the Murray case. And yet, there has been no breakthrough in bringing those responsible for ordering the hits to book.

Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel has been talking about violence in courts and has been meeting with the Police Minister. He also told me that he is very much concerned about acting against violence before judges become targets.

“Very, very senior members of the judiciary have experienced hijackings, especially at the Johannesburg High Court, coming in and out. You do know that our prosecutors, most recently in Gqeberha, have been assassinated, so the personnel of our justice system are under threat, and we are taking the necessary measures.”

With the Madlanga Commission and parliamentary inquiry into the policeimminent, there are at least attempts to clean up the police service and to restore trust, credibility and competence. In an editorial, News24 has called for a high-level task team to investigate hits.

But that can’t happen soon enough. This is urgent. We cannot wait until it happens to act.

Journalists and judges are next. It is bad enough that prosecutors, attorneys, auditors, whistleblowers and witnesses are being shot dead in cold blood. Brown was murdered in front of her husband and child. Deokoran was killed after dropping her teenage daughter off at school.

If a financial motive is required for authorities to act, then heed the warning issued by the CEO of the largest asset manager in the country this week. Hendrik du Toit of Ninety One spoke out, saying that if authorities did not rein in crime, we would see capital flight from the country.

“Our law enforcement agencies are in a woeful state, but to date, our judicial system has held firm. For how long can it withstand the combination of lawlessness and the lack of urgency from the government to reform our law enforcement agencies?” he said.

“When the legal establishment is fear-struck or corrupted, the rule of law collapses. Without the rule of law, commerce as we know it cannot operate. That means capital flight, job losses and the risk of social instability.”

I’ve known forensic investigator Chad Thomas for more than 15 years. We have worked on plenty of organised crime cases together. He told me this week, “It is going to get worse before it gets better.

“Bad actors are literally acting with impunity. Nobody seems safe, whether it is journalists, whistleblowers, investigators or insolvency practitioners. All are at risk. What makes it all the more bizarre is that if someone phoned somebody and threatened them in the past, forewarned is forearmed; we now see people following through on those threats. It’s the lack of consequences and accountability”

We must act before we become another Mexico or Colombia. We have already left it far too late.