By Our Reporter
ABUJA (PRECISE POST) – The President and Founder of the Africa Development Studies Centre, Sir Victor Walsh Oluwafemi, has unveiled a major historical and policy research presentation challenging longstanding narratives linking Nigerians to the origins of organised crime and drug trafficking in South Africa.
The study, released under the Centre’s continental governance and security studies initiative, examines the historical roots of organised crime, armed robbery, illicit drug trade, and criminal economies in South Africa.
Titled “Crime, Drugs, Apartheid and Historical Memory: Reassessing the Origins of Organised Crime in South Africa,” the research argues that historical evidence does not support claims that Nigerians introduced crime or drugs into South Africa.
According to the presentation, South Africa had established criminal gangs, violent robbery networks, illicit cannabis trade systems, and anti-drug legislation decades before the end of apartheid and before significant Nigerian migration into the country.
The research revealed that South Africa enacted formal anti-drug laws as early as 1922, particularly targeting cannabis, locally known as “dagga.” Historical records reviewed by the Centre further showed that by the mid-twentieth century, the country had already gained international attention for major cannabis seizures and underground illicit trade activities.
The study traced the roots of violent crime in South Africa to colonial and apartheid-era structures, including racial segregation, forced removals, economic exclusion, migrant labour systems, township underdevelopment, political violence, gang formation, illegal arms circulation, and institutional inequality.
Presenting the findings, Oluwafemi said historical evidence must take precedence over emotional narratives and xenophobic assumptions.
He stated that crime and drug trafficking in South Africa did not begin with Nigerians and that the country’s criminal ecosystem was rooted in historical, structural, political, and socio-economic realities.
The ADSC President noted that by 1992, before South Africa’s democratic transition in 1994, the country already recorded some of the world’s highest violent crime rates, including murder rates estimated at about 77 per 100,000 people and armed robbery rates exceeding 375 per 100,000.
According to the research, the expansion of transnational organised crime after apartheid was driven by South Africa’s reintegration into the global economy, increased trade routes, porous borders, rising unemployment, global narcotics demand, and weak transitional institutions.
The study acknowledged that while some foreign criminal networks, including certain Nigerian syndicates, later became involved in organised criminal activities in post-apartheid South Africa, there was no historical basis for attributing the origins of crime and drug trafficking in the country to Nigerians.
Oluwafemi warned against nationality-based stereotyping, saying such narratives fuel xenophobia, social division, misinformation, and diplomatic tensions across Africa.
He stressed that the real challenges confronting South Africa remained inequality, governance failures, unemployment, institutional weaknesses, organised criminal evolution, and historical injustice.
The research also examined the evolution of organised gangs in the Western Cape, township criminal economies during apartheid, illicit mining operations, smuggling corridors, and the growth of narcotics trafficking following South Africa’s international reintegration in the 1990s.
The study forms part of ADSC’s broader research efforts on governance systems, migration, organised crime, public policy, regional stability, institutional resilience, and security sector reforms across Africa.
Among the key findings highlighted in the presentation were that South Africa had anti-drug legislation before 1930, organised gangs and armed robbery networks existed during colonial and apartheid periods, and crime rates escalated sharply during the late apartheid transition of the 1980s and early 1990s.
The Centre added that post-apartheid organised crime later became transnational, involving both local and international actors, while xenophobic narratives continue to oversimplify deeply rooted historical and institutional realities.
The full ADSC research publication is expected to be released on the Centre’s official policy and research platforms in the coming weeks.
