South African authorities are poorly prepared to deal with terrorism
South Africa’s security institutions are poorly prepared to deal with Islamist extremists and terrorists operating across the border in Mozambique, a new report has found.
This is according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), which released a report entitled ‘Insurgency, illicit markets and corruption: The Cabo Delgado conflict and its regional implications’.
Looking at Islamic State networks in South Africa, it notes that South Africa has some history of extremism movements linked to vigilante groups, such as PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs), but the country has rarely been a target for radical Islamic terrorism. The emergence of some cases linked to Islamic State since 2015, however, has led some analysts to argue that this situation is changing.
“Some have speculated that South Africa’s intervention via SADC in neighbouring Mozambique could make the country a bigger target. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, for example, warned that Islamic State militants could target South Africa and other allied nations intervening in Mozambique at a summit with Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta in November 2021,” the report stated.
There have been several instances over the past two decades where South Africa has been used as a base for terrorists operating internationally: as a base to plan attacks, a conduit for financing, or a hiding place. Some analysts have argued that South Africa’s extensive issues with gangsterism, corruption and entrenched organized crime have created a febrile situation that terror networks can exploit to their advantage.
This includes the case of Samantha Lewthwaite, a British national who was instrumental in planning the Westgate mall attack in Nairobi by al-Shabaab. In 2014, Lewthwaite was discovered to have been living in South Africa, using a fake South African passport, since at least 2008. Other terror suspects have used falsified South African passports and South African nationals have also been identified joining terrorist networks overseas.
The use of South Africa as a ‘rear base’ for training, concealment and fundraising for Islamist militants was acknowledged by South African state security sources in the first decade of the 2000s. This dynamic appears to continue today. A report released by SADC states that some funding for the Mozambican insurgency has been channelled through individuals and private organizations in South Africa and other countries in East Africa, including such Tanzania, DRC, Uganda and Burundi.
Since the emergence of Islamic State, a number of South Africans have reportedly travelled to join the group in Syria. An estimate from 2017 ranged widely between 60 and 100 individuals.
Since 2015, several Islamic State-linked incidents have taken place in South Africa. Some argue this represents a shift whereby South Africa is becoming an active theatre of operations for Islamist terrorism.
In two of these incidents, suspects or people linked to the cases also joined the Islamic State-aligned insurgents in Mozambique, suggesting that the newer, southern African front of the caliphate can draw in individuals inspired by global Islamic State ideals, the GI-TOC report stated.
The report notes that some observers argue that the cases that have emerged since 2015 prove that South Africa now ‘faces an imminent threat of jihadist terrorism’. Whereas previously South Africa avoided becoming the target of Islamic State’s jihadist ire because of its stance on international terrorism policy, it now faces ‘blowback’ due to its intervention in the Mozambican insurgency, as Islamic State itself has threatened in a 2020 issue of its publication Al Nabā.
South African law enforcement reports that there are at least seven South African nationals known to be currently fighting in Mozambique, but that 30–40 are suspected.
“The incidents linked to Islamic State that have emerged in South Africa since 2015 do not necessarily show an immediate, sustained threat of Islamic terrorism to the country. However, they do starkly demonstrate that the institutions tasked with identifying, prosecuting and preventing these cases are fundamentally weak,” the report stated.
“South Africa’s security institutions have long been riddled with corruption, maladministration and infiltration by organized crime. Concerted efforts by powerful political interests to undermine their independence, misappropriate intelligence resources for political purposes, and cripple police and prosecutorial capacity to act on corruption – notably during the decade-long tenure of President Jacob Zuma – have had a devastating effect.”
The State Security Agency (SSA) – which is key to assessing intelligence on foreign and domestic threats – is among the many agencies that have been undermined. The SSA faced accusations of incompetence after the widespread violence in KwaZuluNatal and Gauteng provinces following Zuma’s imprisonment for contempt of court in July 2021. In August 2021, as part of a cabinet reshuffle, Ramaphosa scrapped the Ministry of Intelligence and announced the SSA would now be directly accountable to the presidency.
Similarly, the police’s Crime Intelligence Division has been all but crippled by years of systemic abuses and corruption, the report said, adding that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), also partially hollowed out during the Zuma years and hamstrung by state capture, politically pliant appointments and a rapid turnover in staff and leadership, is now struggling to right itself.
The impact of weak institutions influences South Africa’s response to terrorism cases. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – a global intergovernment watchdog of money laundering and terrorist financing – published a report in October 2021 which found that South Africa was not pursuing investigations into terrorism financing consistent with international standards.
FATF notes that South Africa has only ever convicted one person involved in terrorism financing, while highlighting that South Africa has thousands of charitable and non-profit organizations with insufficient oversight, suggesting some might be at risk of terror financing abuse.
Authorities have stated that they are engaged in active investigations into terrorist financing from South Africa to Mozambique. Hawks spokesperson Lloyd Ramovha told media in August 2020 that South Africans were aiding and abetting Islamic State in Mozambique with ‘financial and material support’.
“However, sources we spoke to levelled criticisms at the way counterterror investigations have been handled,” the GI-TOC report stated. “Investigators with close knowledge of Islamic State-linked cases expressed fears that South African authorities do not currently have enough technical and specialist capacity to deal with cases of this nature.
Terrorism cases also require significant manpower, informer networks, cyber capabilities, specialist language skills, cultural knowledge and an understanding of militant ideology, elements that are largely lacking in South Africa’s security establishment today.”
Several sources told the GI-TOC that there is a single South African Police Services expert who analyses data seized in terror raids, for example. This lack of investigative capacity contributed to what the magistrate criticized as ‘unreasonable’ delays, which led to the Verulam mosque prosecution being struck from the roll.
Significant delays have also affected other terror offence cases. In October 2021, when the Thulsie twins appeared in court, the judge slammed the delays in their trial as ‘preposterous’. Senior Hawks sources allege that a lack of expertise domestically has left South African investigators reliant on the cooperation of overseas partners.
Publicly, the South African government has affirmed its commitment to counterterrorism, but several sources in South Africa’s justice and security cluster expressed fears that there is little appetite in government to see terrorism as a serious issue, the GI-TOC report stated. This is attributed to authorities being otherwise preoccupied with high-profile corruption cases in South Africa.
A Hawks officer investigating terror cases told GI-TOC that while police wanted to pursue terror cases, the state’s capacity to do so is increasingly diminished as more and more senior detectives retire.
Source: Defence Web
