SADC's Strategy to Combat Transnational Organised Crime in Southern Africa

“Does the collaboration strategy proposed by SADC provide a feasible solution to controlling and eradicating transnational organised crime between member states?”

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is working on a comprehensive strategy to identify, understand and combat transnational organised crime in the region. SADC and its member states have separate protocols and strategies to address an array of growing cross-border threats including the smuggling of weapons, drugs and wildlife, as well as human trafficking. Related transnational crimes such as illicit financial flows and terrorism are also on the rise in the region.

Given the nexus between these offences and the role that organised crime networks play in these threats, a single wide-ranging strategy is needed. This was first identified in 2004 in SADC’s Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ on Defence, Politics and Security, which advises member states on regional challenges and responses. Since then, it has been a recurring recommendation in various SADC strategic meetings and documents.

After the ENACT project released an INTERPOL assessment of organised crime in Southern Africa in 2018, the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) recommended that the SADC Secretariat and INTERPOL develop a regional crime-combatting plan. The ISS was among various organisations that contributed to writing the zero draft.

‘This was an important opportunity for the ENACT project and the ISS, which have long been advocating for a comprehensive regional strategy to confront transnational crime in the region,’ said Martin Ewi, an ISS organised crime expert in the ENACT project. The ISS prioritised its collaboration with the SADC Secretariat by providing expert technical support to the process.

The ISS has deep insights into organised crime, based on its research and ENACT’s five regional observatories across the continent. ‘We know that the perpetrators of illicit activity share smuggling routes, intelligence, technology and operatives,’ Ewi explained. ‘So seeing transnational organised crime from a wider perspective enables SADC states, law enforcement agencies and other affected government departments to collaborate more effectively.’

For example, if wildlife offences aren’t recognised as part of a wider organised crime phenomenon, they may be handled by anti-poaching units and environmental activists, without seeing the links with other illicitly traded goods. The role of the drug trade in financing other types of organised crime also needs to be accounted for.

A zero draft of the strategy was completed in May 2020 and approved in September that year by a SADC technical working group. The document is now on track to be adopted by SADC’s various policy organs and heads of state and government.

Background of Transnational Organised Crime in Southern Africa

The strategy will present SADC countries with a tool to implement a range of regional security instruments and decisions. It provides a common framework for tactical, operational and strategic approaches to organised crime. It includes mechanisms for transparency, cooperation and monitoring and evaluation. An accompanying action plan will identify timelines, resources and partners needed for effective implementation.

‘By seeing organised crime as an interdisciplinary problem, the strategy gets all roleplayers involved in an integrated manner. Essentially it makes the job of combating organised crime a societal responsibility and not just a task for law enforcement agencies,’ Ewi said.

The research assignment provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate your research, writing and reasoning skills. Students usually argue that the format and pressure of tests provide little time and space to engage with problems in a way that allows for careful and deliberate attention.

The research assignment does just that: it allows you time to think, argue, reconsider (and then argue again), and to present your findings in a way that conforms to good academic writing and reasoning. It thus presents an opportunity to engage in a scientific manner with a pressing real-world issue – in this case, the issue of a new SADC strategy to combat organised crime in Southern Africa.

SADC and its member states have separate protocols and strategies to address an array of growing cross-border threats including the smuggling of weapons, drugs and wildlife, as well as human trafficking. Related transnational crimes such as illicit financial flows and terrorism are also on the rise in the region.

Given the nexus between these offences and the role that organised crime networks play in these threats, a single wide-ranging strategy is needed. Emphasis should therefore be placed on a new SADC strategy to combat organised crime in Southern Africa that rather focus on more collaborative efforts between member states.

•Conceptualised the term “Transnational Crime” and distinguished the different types of transnational crime as well as identified the prominent types that are most problematic in the SADC region.

•Described the causes of these types of transnational crime in the SADC region and how individual states have attempted to resolve these issues.

•Investigate the possibility of a single, wide-ranging strategy as proposed by SADC as a more collaborative effort between member states to combat transnational crime. In evaluating this collaborative effort, emphasis should be placed on the role of the

a. 2004 SADC Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ on Defence, Politics and Security;

b. The EU sponsored ENACT project which released an INTERPOL assessment of organised crime in Southern Africa as well as

c. The draft of the strategy that was completed in May 2020 and approved in September that year by a SADC technical working

group;

•Evaluate how this strategy is intended to present SADC countries with:

a. A tool to implement a range of security instruments and decisions

b. Provide a common framework for tactical, operational and strategic approaches to organised crime, and

c. Includes mechanisms for transparency, cooperation, monitoring and evaluation.

•In your opinion, is the strategy to combat transnational organised crime proposed by SADC feasible since individual member states are already struggling to manage and police the flow of goods (legal or illegal) between their borders?

1. Define your research question: A research question has already been identified, but it is important that you actually understand the question. How should I do this? You can do this by identifying the main concepts or keywords in your research question to help you identify a search strategy.

2. Gather background information: You can make use of dictionaries and good (relevant) textbooks to find definitions and background information.

3. Find books & journal articles: Search “Kovsiecat” or use the library’s comprehensive list of journals. You can also make use of “Google scholar” or do a general “Google search”.

4. Evaluate your sources: Not every source is a good source. Think critically about the information you find. Quality sources significantly contribute to the quality of your assignment.