The Global Initiative against organized crime in which
I am honored to take part as expert-member, issued very recently a report
titled:
Organized Crime in Southern Africa. Part of the Global
Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime series on Governance,
Development and State Fragility.
The core of it is about the Unholy alliances between
Organized Crime, Government and Economic emerged analyzing Organized Crime
situation in South Africa.
I am very concerned and focused on this matter because
of my studies and research on Mafia Model that emerged studying the Italian
Sicilian mafia, the Camorra and the ’ndrangheta revealing the ability –along
the time passing- to evolve in something more structured and resilient: the MAFIA
SYSTEM.
The very first question for me was: how it is possible
that this forms of criminality are actives for so long time? Starting from it I
developed a theory based on the evidence on converging and simultaneous interest
of the three actors: Organized Crime, Economy and Politic. About the results of
my studies I am writing a book that starting from the origin of these mafias
and the analyzing the way evolved in Italy in order to extract a model that can
be compared with the similar experience all around the world. This is in my point
of view a very interesting way of approaching this matter because it is
possible to use the same key experience to avoid, or at least curb, the
emergence of similar resilient mafias in other countries.
And this is why, apart from the intrinsic value, I
have found very important the work done by the Global Initiative about the
organized crime situation in Africa. It is clear for me that there are a lots
of similarity between the emergence, in particular about the Italian Sicilian
mafia and the ‘ndrangheta experience, with the ongoing evolution on many
criminal actors in South Africa. Of course this comparison is not at all a mere
academic exercise with no practical value, on the contrary, it is aimed
to suggest the possible tools to curb the criminal escalation defining the best
practices to this goal.
Starting from the fact that I agree that “…focus
excessively on using seizure data to capture the extent and nature of criminal
flows have overlooked the ways in which organized crime impacts on citizens and
the state, which is essential in an African context…” is a misleading way to start and
focus on the OC potential development in a specific area; what is more reliable
is to us and index developed on the base of other similar experience tailored
for the context having in mind the differences. This step help us to focus on
the worst areas affected by OC and evaluate at the same time the level of
danger these are posing to civil society. In South Africa as The GlobaI Initiative
report shows Protection Economies have developed in a range of contexts and
this is the sign that the Mafia System is still acting and provoking damages
that will affect these territories for decades ahead. It is a vicious circle in
which every single actor act protecting his interest and doing so helping the
others to survive and gain power. It was so in Italy for example with the mafiosi investing their money in the
Vatican bank helped by some Italian politician, or systematically, and this is
still the case, direct votes for election at the Italian parliament or local
administrative entities. In terms of money laundering, for example white collar
crime is possible if the Mafia System is protected at local level by local
politician which benefit from both criminal and facilitators. At the base of
this modus operandi we find the corruption which affect all the
levels of responsibilities in the bureaucratic machine. But if the laws is not
good enough to prevent and tackle this illegal behavior who is in charge
for modify it? Who else if not Politician of course. The Mafia System is
nowadays a very serious problem not only for South Africa but for many others
countries all around the word such as Italy.
Suggesting to read the Global initiative report -I
would say- it is encouraging to see that a good pattern has been started to a
better comprehension of the organized crime peculiarity.
