by Deon Meyer
'Then we better get cracking.'
'We only have one operator in Namibia. In Windhoek. I will phone him now and hear how soon he can be in Walvis Bay.'
'Thanks Quinn.. .Walvis Bay? What would the Supreme Committee do in Walvis Bay?'
'Why Walvis Bay?' Janina Mentz asked at 8.41 at the round table in her office.
'Import harbour. For the weapons.' Tau Masilo said.
'You're speculating.'
Masilo has prepared. 'Occam's Law. The simplest explanation is usually the right one. After the Ismail Mohammed debacle, the Supreme Committee will want minimum attention drawn to the Cape, they are warier than ever. They know it will be hard to land the weapons here, and if things go wrong, the focus will be on them. Give them credit. Walvis Bay is a clever move. Low security, cheaper bribes, good transport links via the Trans Kalahari corridor to Gauteng. And if some error slips in, there is little evidence of their involvement.'
Mentz considered that viewpoint and nodded. 'Could be. What do we do?'
'Osman's flight is via Windhoek, where he must change planes. We have only one operative there. He is already on his way to Walvis by road, and he ought to be there an hour before Osman.'
'What time is Osman arriving there?'
'One o'clock this afternoon.'
'How good is our man in Namibia?'
'His name is Reinhard Rohn. Thirty years' experience. An old fox. His reports are always thorough. Prompt.'
'Where do we find these people?' But then Mentz frowned. 'If only we had someone inside, Tau, we could have had three of our best teams waiting there for Osman.'
Masilo merely nodded, having little stomach for this argument. Then he changed the subject. 'We know who is supposed to buy Johnson Chitepo's shipment of diamonds.'
It took Mentz a moment to make the leap. 'Oh?'
'The role allocations in this drama keep getting more interesting. Inkunzi Shabangu called the Committee this weekend with the news.
The latest supporting player is apparently one Mr Willem "Tweetybird" de la Cruz, gang leader on the Cape Flats.'
'You're not serious.'
'Come on, Mac, we have work to do,' Mrs Killian said just after ten, and rolled her chair up to Milla's desk. She waited for MacFarland to ride his chair closer before she sat down and put the fat files down on the desktop.
'Milla, this is your first big one, and we must have something ready by tomorrow morning,' she said. 'But don't worry, Mac will be your safety net...'
Mrs Killian handed the first file to Milla.
'Criminal gangs in the Cape Flats. There is a lot of material here, the challenge is to reduce it to three or four pages. One on the background, but focus on the last decade, the rest is really irrelevant. And one on the current state of affairs, again just broad strokes, a brief overview. Remember, we want the top management to be informed, but we don't want to waste their time. And then one page on a particular syndicate: the Restless Ravens. Not more than a paragraph or two on their history, keep the focus on how they look now, what they are involved in. Which brings me to you, Mac. You will be looking at a Mr Willem de la Cruz, also known as "Tweetybird" or "Willy" ...'
'My, my ...'
'Not now, Mac. De la Cruz is the leader of the Restless Ravens, he's the one who most concerns us ...'
'As he should. You know what they say, a tweetybird in the hand is worth ...'
'Mac!'
'Come on, mother. Tweetybird. The Ravens. And Willy ... Freudian, to say the least?'
At twenty-five past twelve, Quinn put his head into Masilo's office. 'Reinhard Rohn, our man in Namibia, just called. He is in the arrivals hall of Walvis Bay airport and waiting for Osman.'
'He knows he must be very discreet?'
'He knows.'
'How will he identify Osman?'
'I sent three photos to his cellphone.'
Masilo was content. 'Keep me up to speed.'
'I will...' Quinn hesitated. 'Advocate, this thing with Tweetybird de la Cruz ...'
'Yes?'
'If the Supreme Committee ... This whole thing can spark a war on the Cape Flats. If Suleiman Dolly starts whispering to their fellow Muslims at PAGAD. The People against Drugs and Gangsterism might get very excited ...'
'I don't think Dolly will be that stupid. He wants the diamonds, and if he foments trouble, the smugglers may look for another buyer.'
Quinn shook his head. 'I hope you're right.'
Fourteen kilometres east of Walvis Bay - and only two kilometres from the border of the Namib Naukluft National Park - lay the Walvis Bay airport, a tiny oasis in the flat and endless stretches of the Namib Desert.
The modern airport building, with its grey steel roof and salmon- coloured walls, stood among palm trees and small patches of green lawn. For Reinhard Rohn, Presidential Intelligence Agency operative, the greatest advantage and disadvantage was the fact that the building was relatively small and the airport reasonably quiet. Departures and Arrivals were alongside each other, and easy to watch. But someone trying to be discreet there had little place to hide.
Rohn was a fifty-one-year-old veteran. Therefore he stood at the windows looking out over the runway to make sure he identified Osman when he disembarked from the plane, and on the way to the building. Rohn memorised his face, the colour of the tailored suit (light brown), the open-collared shirt (light blue) and the small black travelling case that Osman dragged along on wheels.
Then he walked out of the building, across the grey-paved path and the sandy parking area to where his white Toyota bakkie was parked. He got in and wound the windows down, took the small pair of binoculars out of the cubbyhole, focused them on the entrance, and waited.
Seven minutes later he saw Osman emerge, saw that the coloured man had no other luggage, just the travel case.
He watched him as he walked to the Avis parking lot, until he was out of sight.
Rohn switched the bakkie on and turned it around, so that he could watch the correct access road.
15
At nine minutes past four in the afternoon Quinn reported to his boss that Rohn's tailing of Shaheed Latif Osman in Walvis Bay had proceeded perfectly.
'Osman took an Avis car straight to the harbour, where he parked in front of the offices of Consolidated Fisheries, in the area of the fishing fleet. He went in to the company's building at 13.35 and only emerged two hours later, at 15.30. After that he went to the Protea Hotel in Sam Nujoma Avenue, where he booked in. Rohn also took a room and kept an eye on proceedings there. We are researching Consolidated Fisheries, and Raj's people will have a report ready tomorrow morning.'
At twenty past four Mother Killian summoned Jessica the Goddess to give her the new task. When Jessica walked back to her work station ten minutes later, spitting ('A fucking fishing company in a fucking boondocks harbour town ...'), she broke Milla's intense concentration, so that she raised her head from the bulky research on street gangs and said to Donald MacFarland, 'Mac, there's stuff in here that does not reflect well on the government.' 'So?'
'So, do I include it?'
'Of course. Spy the Beloved Country, even if it hurts.' 'OK.'
Report: Criminal Gangs of the Cape Flats
Date: 14 September 2009
Compiled by: Milla Strachan and Donald MacFarland
Background
In the last decade of the Apartheid-era, gang-related activities in the former Cape Province were limited mostly to the former coloured group areas, especially in the lower socio-economic neighbourhoods of the Cape Flats.
The type and extent of their crimes was relatively limited, mainly as a result of international isolation, limitation by the Group Areas Act, and aneffective, experienced police force with extensive powers, including detention without trial and dubious interrogation methods.
This situation began to change subtly in the early nineties, when the former SA Police Force was used more and more for suppression of political unrest. Street gangs could relax, accelerate
their recruitment and systematically expand their activities, which up till then were small-scale and limited.
It was in fact the transition to a democratic government in 1994, and the major changes in the following six years, that gave organised crime the opportunity to move from a cottage industry to international players. The following factors apply:
Post 1994: Opening of borders and international influx
Dispensing with strict border control, and South Africa's re-entry to international trade resulted in an influx of foreign tourists, currency and investment, which included the most notorious players in trans-national organised crime. It was primarily the syndicates from Nigeria, Russia, China, Italy and Colombia who saw the opportunities, and who rapidly established themselves, mainly in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
It is estimated that more than 100,000 Nigerian nationals illegally entered South Africa in that period, and settled here.
Existing infrastructure
Despite the country's isolation, the South Africa of 1994 possessed excellent infrastructure - a highly efficient banking service, excellent telecommunications networks, and extensive road-, rail-, and air-links.
Crime syndicates benefited just as much from these as the foreign investors and legal new businesses.
In addition, there was already a basic framework of organised crime in place, in the form of the gangs of the Cape Peninsula. Heroin and cocaine in particular began flooding into the country, and found an existing basic handling and distribution network, however unsophisticated.
The smuggling of, and trade in, other drugs, arms, ivory, wood, precious stones, abalone and humans, increased gradually.
A weakened police force and modern legislation
In the midst of the influx of trans-national crime syndicates, from 1994 to 1998 the former SAP transformed into the new South African Police
Services (SAPS). Ironically, the consequences of this process would be considered one of the key factors in the rise of organised crime in the Western Cape in particular.
Affirmative Action, a high percentage of resignations and retirements of senior officers, retraining and redeployment, alteration of structures and transfers not only led to massive loss of experience within police ranks, but also seriously harmed trust between members and general morale within the Service. Infighting, frustration, obstruction and politicisation contributed to the SAPS taking its eye off the ball of organised crime.
Legislation on criminal procedure, founded on modern, humanitarian, and internationally acceptable human rights principles, also followed during this period, forcing law enforcers to respect the rights of suspects, change arrest protocols and interrogation techniques considerably (including a total shift from the so-called confession formula - read physical intimidation - of the Apartheid-era).
To a large degree, crime intelligence collapsed as a result of this, and had to be rebuilt from the ground up.
The result was a window of opportunity for organised crime, which was utilised fully.
PAGAD, CORE and POCA
With the police paralysed, civilian resistance to crime in the coloured areas exploded. The most famous of these was PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs), the Muslim pressure group that initiated vigilantism against gang bosses in the Cape Flats in 1996.
Marches on drug houses, shooting incidents, assaults and elimination of leaders seriously interfered with existing gangs, destroyed command structures, and dramatically limited criminal activities.
It was an evolutionary process for gang leaders - only the strongest survived. The remaining syndicate bosses reacted by forming the Community Outreach Forum, or CORE. The name was deliberately cynical, and had nothing to do with the community whatsoever. It was a consolidation and regrouping, and, for the first time in their history, organised crime bosses agreed to cooperate. They set up a small, effective executive committee, which, within months, had streamlined money laundering, smuggling and international cooperation and taken them to new heights of professionalism and secrecy.
The other consequence of PAGAD's behaviour was that the senior management of the gangs moved out of the coloured community and into traditional white neighbourhoods - and expanded their activities to these areas as well. The sale, especially of cocaine and marijuana, among others, found a new market.
A final factor was the parliamentary acceptance of the POCA (Prevention of Organised Crime Act), wide-reaching legislation that also gave the State the power to confiscate the assets of gang leaders and their confederates.
The Restless Ravens
The Restless Ravens were a relatively small, but very effective street gang that in the early nineties mainly operated in Manenberg, Bonteheuwel, Bishop Lavis, Heideveld, Surrey and Primrose Park.
Their leader was the ruthless, ambitious and highly intelligent Willem (Willy) 'Tweetybird' de la Cruz (53), who had by then already served two terms in jail, for assault (1978-1981), and robbery (1983-1988). He owed his nickname to his hobby, the breeding of budgies, but also from the ritual of placing a living bird in the mouth of traitors after he had killed them.
De la Cruz and the Restless Ravens profited largely from the chaos that PAGAD caused in 1996. Particularly because they were small and therefore seen as less of a threat, PAGAD generally left them in peace. Not only did the Restless Ravens survive this period, but as a result of the vigilantism, they acquired new recruits and new territories.
De la Cruz was also one of the founding members of CORE, and with his good negotiation and networking skills he played a key role in the alliance. He also recognised, from an early stage, the threat of the POCA laws and the application of them through the special investigation unit, the Scorpions.
His fear that authorities would seize his considerable financial and property assets led him to make two important appointments - each one a confidant whom he had met in prison.
The first was an accountant, the former bookkeeper Moegamat Perkins, (49, sentence for fraud served out from 1982-1988), who had to ensure that the assets of the Ravens were, firstly, not in the name of de la Cruz, and secondly, structured so that confiscation was well-nigh impossible.
The second appointment was that of a 'general', a strongman who could assert the Ravens' authority through murder, assault and intimidation, but also a counterweight to ensure that the influence of the accountant, Perkins, was limited. His choice fell on Terrence Richard Baadjies (50, 'Terry',
'Terror', 'The Terrorist' - sentenced to a young offenders' institution at age 15 for murder, later serving jail time for dealing in forbidden substances, assault with intent, and manslaughter).
Both appointments were master strokes. When the Scorpions, and especially the SAPS Unit for Organised Crime, seized nearly R200 million in gang assets in the Cape Peninsula in the period 2000 to 2006, the Restless Ravens were untouchable. With Terror and his soldiers always ready to take over disadvantaged syndicates' business through violent means, the Restless Ravens developed into one of the most successful criminal organisations during the same period. De la Cruz's prominence in CORE was also boosted.
Recruitment of young coloured men from the Cape Flats into the Ravens was also helped considerably by the socio-economic deterioration of that community since 1994. Some of the most important factors are:
The drug Tik (Methamphetamine, or 'Meth'): 91 % of all Tik dependents are coloured - with an average age of 16.6 years.
18% of all coloured youths between the ages of 14 and 34 are in jail for crimes.
21.8% of coloured youths at age 16 are not at school. 48% of the coloured community are economically inactive, or unemployed. (Of a total of 2.7 million, 975,000 are economically inactive and 340,000 unemployed.)
In conclusion:
The success of the Restless Ravens (and their POCA evasion) has attracted just the sort of attention they wished to avoid. According to a recent report in Die Burger (28 August 2009) the new provincial DA government in the Western Cape has given instruct
ions that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate the activities of the gang - with an eye to charges of tax evasion.
16
15 September 2009. Tuesday.
Late that afternoon Mentz invited them in with a smile and a light- hearted, 'Sit down, gentlemen.' She told them the Minister had called her after lunch. He was keen to hear of any new developments. She was able to tell him about Walvis Bay. Then he said, Janina, the President and I have great appreciation for your work, but particularly for the manner in which you are handling this. Have a look at your budget. If you need more, talk to us, because this is a high priority for us. Something else I must mention: you may have heard the rumours of a new Intelligence Structure, I hear the corridors are full of it. Now, Janina, I would like to tell you now, provisionally your Agency is not part of the President's plans.
Janina Mentz leaned back in her chair and looked at the two men with great satisfaction.
Masilo pressed his thumbs under his braces and smiled slowly and broadly.
Rajkumar, loyal to his nature, pounced on the word 'provisionally'.
Mentz reassured him, but today without the habitual frown and suppressed irritation. 'That was exactly what we wanted, Raj, it was our primary goal, and we achieved it. Let's enjoy the moment. And let me thank you both for excellent work.' And then she added: 'I want you to convey my congratulations to the Report Squad. I thought their work yesterday was excellent. And let Mrs Killian take them to lunch somewhere nice. On my account.'
The men disguised their astonishment. They could not remember ever seeing Janina Mentz like this.
Mentz directed her smile at Masilo. 'And how is our man in Walvis Bay?'
The advocate reported that according to operator Reinhard Rohn, Osman had spent the night in the Protea Hotel and flown back to Cape Town the next day at 12.55. A team was waiting for him here and carefully followed him to the meeting house of the Supreme Committee in Chamberlain Street, where it is assumed he gave his report. In the meantime Quinn had given Rohn orders to stay in Walvis Bay and see what he could do to solve the riddle.