The panel taking part in the discussion includes:
Nathi Olifant, Author of Blood,Blades and Bullets: Anatomy of a Glebelands hitman.
Calvin Rafadi, Forensic Investigator and Criminal Expert at Bizz Tracers.
Jenni Irish Qhobosheane, Analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
The Global Initiative keeps data on hits taking place in the country and we’ve seen that since 2015 there’s been a significant spike in those. The biggest areas where the spikes have occurred have been in the political, taxi and organised crime areas.
Jenni Irish Qhobosheane, Analyst – Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
Olifant explains how this industry operates and says the hitmen are often young men recruited from rural areas, tempted by wealth and opportunity, and groomed into being killers by handlers in the hierarchy of organised crime syndicates.
They do their homework, the handlers. They target these young boys with no paperwork, they are still kids with no birth certificate, no ID, and even no online profile.
Nathi Olifant, Author – Blood, Blades and Bullets: Anatomy of a Glebelands hitman
They are also taken to shooting ranges where there are also cops who know who these people are and what their career will be, after being taught how to shoot. They get these boys, you know, they’re brainwashed, they have no value for life or recognition of any value for life. They train them and they send them anywhere.
Nathi Olifant, Author – Blood, Blades and Bullets: Anatomy of a Glebelands hitman.
He states that they usually start as teenagers but will develop experience and value as they continue to perform hits, and will often be traded between handlers and criminal syndicates, gaining skills and preference toward particular types of executions.
Rafadi explains that pricing is usually at a fixed rate because the hitmen are groomed to not care about the person and kill indiscriminately.
The cost is actually more fixed, a fixed price because they don’t care who they kill. They are sent a photo, it doesn’t matter what calibre that person is holding in government or even in business.
Calvin Rafadi, Forensic Investigator and Criminal Expert – Bizz Tracers
He elaborates that these hitmen are only allowed to use public shooting as a method of killing because the organised crime syndicates have a ruthless demand to see the body on the street before the hitman is paid.
Irish explains that the statistics indicate that a lack of prosecution has led to a sense of impunity for the crime which has resulted in the brazen and often very public strategies used by the hitmen.
Only 19 out of every 100 hit cases are resolved, so there is actually a degree of impunity which allows these criminals to operate with complete brazenness.
Jenni Irish Qhobosheane, Analyst – Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Rafadi explains that the hitmen acquire illegal firearms from a range of sources, with a majority coming from police stations. But automatic weapons are usually smuggled in from other countries.
Most of the firearms were robbed from police stations that are very quiet. They will study the police station, then they rob the particular police station. And then some they get them from households, breaking in houses, and some from the police barracks, and then you get the likes of the AK-47’s which are automatic, mostly they come from the route of Mozambique.
Calvin Rafadi, Forensic Investigator and Criminal Expert – Bizz Tracers
The panel agrees that socioeconomic factors have also contributed to the increase in the number of hitmen, as young men are recruited from hostels, prisons, and rural areas. The industry preys upon young people in poverty, creating an illusion of wealth gain through performing contract killings.
Some of the young people are recruited, very often coming from hostels, coming from rural areas, coming from impoverished gang infested areas where young people are recruited and then hone their skills in the trade. And those people are being recruited very often because they don’t a whole lot of other alternatives available to them.
Jenni Irish Qhobosheane, Analyst – Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
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