Remarks by the Head of INTERPOL Regional Bureau: Mr Sello Moerane Opening of the implementation of the SADC Integrated Strategy against TOC and its Implementation Plan, Pretoria, 3 March 2025

A Good morning to you all.

I am honoured to address this distinguished gathering, The Honourable Minister of Police your presence as guest of honor equates in importance to your attachment to this initiative, thank you. General Fannie Sehlahle Masemola, your impactful leadership of the South African Police Service precedes you Sir, we are witnessing a committed and determined organization, resolute, head on against high activities of organised crime. My profound appreciation to all the Director Generals of various departments and the leadership of private sector institutions present and represented herein.  Your contribution and leadership in building blocks of regional and global strategy against organised crime is extremely appreciated.

The overarching vision of SADC through Directorate of Organ on Politics, Defense and Security Affairs, spearheaded by Senior Officer Police/SARPCCO, Ms GUMEDE has done immensely well to regionalise an approach in implementing the SADC integrated strategy to prevent and combat TOC – and its implementation plans. ISS Dr. EWI and his colleagues assisted significantly in developing and guiding in implementing strategy.

We are also extremely privileged to have the presence of Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). This initiative has gone through length and breadth, contributing to the work on INTERSECTIONS building blocks of a global strategy against organised crime, from vision to action; through A decade of analysis, disruption and resilience, which will be enormously beneficial to this process.

Guest of Honour, TOC threatens humanity. It intensifies violence, contributes to debilitating factors on governance, erosively links to corruption, violates human rights, and endangers our welfare. You will hear the distinctions made between the underworld and upperworld, and increasingly blurred lines between the formal and informal sectors each fuel organised crime.

I want to commend South Africa’s approach in domesticating this process, by evading the temptation of stove-piping, and confining the discussions to expert law enforcement alone. The SADC Strategy to combat TOC is preceded by the ambition to have national and regional flexilateral approaches/policies, coalitions of myriads of expertise, all necessitated by the need for concerted efforts in reducing TOC. INTERPOL’s Global Threat Report and the Crime Threat Assessment Report by INTERPOL RB Harare predicate our narrative in the invaluable arsenal of research of ISS-ENACT-GITOC and SADC priority crimes.

As we draw upon lessons from South Africa’s context, a regional economic hegemon, also experiencing heightened levels of insecurity through TOC, Cross-border and Organised Crime, the working model intimated in the strategy is a creation of national task force that is represented by interagency and multiskilled agencies and/or institutions. The National Task Force will contribute to a regional process, which shall constitute a planned Regional Task Force.

This National Task Force will also assist in mitigating the less current interaction, discussions, and development of among other products, that will inform regional understanding and respond to organised crime threats.

I agree that it is important to consider changing the conditions in which organised crime operates, while in the same breath address how criminal justices’ actors pursue crime actors with better understanding and an inclusivity approach.

This process is of creating value chains to effectively facilitate multilateral cooperation, will similarly enhance coordination, and synchronise national, regional, and global crime addressing processes.

In crafting national direction, it is important to understand:

• the complex structure of crime actors;
• how the intersection of various forms of criminality are playing out;
• how entrenched, developed and developing crime markets are nationally, and their links to global markets; and
• Illicit flows and their adaption to changing circumstance and environments.

Ladies and gentlemen, this strategy in its implementation action plan seeks to paint a comprehensive response to organised crime as a threat to national, regional, and international peace and security.

It is a partnership-centred approach, advocating for the breaking down of silos, and following the money with the intention to shrink illicit markets.

It is worth noting that the implementation of the SADC Integrated Strategy will throttle / snuff out the non-submission of data and render the consistency in data accumulation the norm regionally and according to plan, in understanding the threat and supporting member states to respond adequately to said threats.

Transnational organised crime flourishes when demands for illicit goods and services, and when corrupt governance through state embedded actors exists. It increases resource scarcity, exploits natural resources and vulnerable communities, profiting from legitimate infrastructure as well as profits systemised through financial systems.

South Africa, due to its uniquely position as a regional economic hub, attracts high criminality siphoning resources and profits out of the country through organised crime. We are aware that its economic size, its position with several institutions, and its dominance with respect to trade further enhances the greater attraction for crimes affecting the country. We may infer these reasons as contributing factors, supporting The 2023 ENACT-ISS Crime Index report’s assessment, which suggests that South Africa is the most resilient country in southern Africa, however that the country also contends with high criminality in the region.

I would like to conclude by challenging this workshop, with taking such factors into cognisance, to develop comprehensive responses and preventive measures against Transnational Organised Crime, as well as practical and implementable terms of reference for the Task Team.

Such should include the appointment of members of decision-making seniority since ‘bureaucracy’ is a recurring challenge reported by various member states, and the recommendations/decisions of this task team will have bearing on the operations of state and private agencies.

As one of the leading agencies, SAPS, through NCB Pretoria should prioritise the expansion of INTERPOL Policing Capabilities to relevant stakeholders and ensure interoperability of databases, especially at ports of entry.

INTERPOL is committed and ready to assist in all related operational matters during this endeavour. With these remarks, I wish you all fruitful deliberations.

Thank you
Siyabonga
Baie Dankie