This article focuses on the illegal smuggling of firearms, marijuana and livestock across the border between South Africa and Lesotho that runs along the Drakensberg area of KwaZulu-Natal. In this area there are 57 mountain passes known for the smuggling of marijuana and livestock.
Firearms, drug trafficking and stock theft on the Lesotho border
Published in Nedbank ISS Crime Index
Volume 5 2001
Number 6, November - December
There is speculation that firearms are directly exchanged for livestock and/or marijuana on the South Africa-Lesotho border. Neither the South African police nor the military can confirm this form of exchange. There are no registered police cases or military operations that have intercepted firearm smuggling in exchange for livestock and marijuana. If it is occurring, it is very ad hoc and small scale. Marijuana and livestock smuggling are mainstay illegal activities in the Drakensberg, and increasingly these operators are using firearms in their operations.
Curtailing the illegal smuggling activities of marijuana and livestock is a concern for both the SANDF and the SAPS. Besides the police detectives operating in this area there are a number of specialised police units (stock theft units, border police, SANAB, and serious and violent crime units).
The military deployed in the area fall under the command of Group 9 in Pietermaritzburg. There is one SANDF company deployed on the Drakensberg border, covering a distance of approximately 256km from Van Reenens Pass in the north to the Matatiele area and the Maluti Mountains in the south. A capacity company consists of approximately 140 personnel, including support personnel such as mechanics and medical staff.
In this mountainous environment, soldiers work under extreme conditions. They are deployed to Maluti Mountain observation posts for three months at a time, often in temperatures ranging from -8°C to -16°C, and are ill equipped to handle the freezing conditions. Patrols in the Drakensberg are difficult as at some points it requires a three-day hike to penetrate certain mountain passes. Under these circumstances, curbing the lively trade in marijuana, firearms and livestock is particularly challenging.
Firearm seizures
The majority of the firearm seizures by Group 9 take place in the interior, away from the actual border, particularly in the Midlands area and along the Drakensberg mountain range.
The seizure of firearms contributes in no small measure to the reduction of illegal weapons in the area. In the first seven months of 2001, 532 firearms were seized with an average of 76 firearms per month (Figure 1). It is interesting to note that the seizures seem to follow a three-monthly pattern of highs and lows. This can be attributed to SANDF deployment, which changes every three months. In the first month the soldiers are getting used to their new environment, in the second month they are fully deployed and operating at full strength, and in the third month they are preparing to leave and scale down their activities.
Figure 1: Firearm seizures by Group 9, SANDF
The majority of the firearms seized are handguns, followed by rifles and home-made firearms (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Types of firearms seized by Group 9
One reason why more handguns are seized in this area is that marijuana couriers are carrying heavy loads of up to 50 kilograms of marijuana per person, and want to limit any extra weight so that they can move swiftly. A handgun is lighter than a shotgun or assault rifle. In addition to this, a handgun is easier to conceal and thus not visible to military and police patrols or crime prevention operations.
Vigilante groups and shooting incidents
Vigilante groups operating in the Drakensberg are involved in shootings with the marijuana couriers, police and SANDF soldiers. These vigilante groups attack the marijuana couriers and rob them of their marijuana and money. As a result, couriers nowadays are armed with handguns.
However, not only people involved in illegal activities are arming themselves against vigilante groups. Small business operators in Lesotho (such as taxi operators and shop owners) often drive over Sani Pass to Pietermaritzburg for supplies, and are reporting more frequent attacks, both in Lesotho and South Africa. As a result they are arming themselves for protection. People in the Drakensberg area are also feeling increasingly insecure, pushing up the demand for firearms.
In the first six months of 2001 six shooting incidents were reported in the Northern Drakensberg; the highest number in the entire Berg area. These incidents are part of vigilante attacks on the police, the military, and nature conservation officers. Three bodies were recovered, thought to be those of couriers and stock thieves attacked by the vigilante groups. It is notable that no shooting incidents were reported and no bodies recovered in the Southern Drakensberg area. This could be ascribed to peace committees that were established in the area and meet on a regular basis to discuss the issues of stock theft, marijuana smuggling, and other crime-related incidents.
Stock theft
One of the major problems in the area is the theft of livestock. Many farmers have been left in dire financial difficulties as a result. Both commercial farmers and small-scale community farmers in the area are feeling the trauma of losing valuable stock, as well as the insecurity of the intrusions. Many farmers have been forced to change from livestock farming to other types of farming like timber. In the last three years livestock farming has been reduced by up to 50%.
Stock theft in the Drakensberg is taking place in a highly organised manner. The stolen livestock are driven up the mountain through a number of little-known passes between South Africa and Lesotho.
There is no indication that the livestock thieves are armed and attacking farms when stealing livestock. However, stock theft often results in revenge attacks, especially between small-scale farmers and their counterparts in Lesotho. Revenge attacks across the border have been on the decrease, but there are suspicions that they will start to flare up again, especially in the northern and central Drakensberg where tensions over this issue are again starting to simmer.
In some instances it would appear that livestock stolen in South Africa are moved to the Lesotho border to give the impression that they are being moved across the border. Instead they are diverted back into South Africa where they are slaughtered and the meat sold illegally.
Figure 3 shows the number of livestock reported stolen to the SANDF. In the first seven months of 2001, 989 livestock were stolen in the whole Drakensberg area.
Figure 3: Livestock reported stolen and recovered: Jan 2001 - Jul 2001
Marijuana seizures
If one looks at the marijuana seizures (Figure 4) it is evident that there has been an increase in seizures by the military. The movement of marijuana into South Africa is happening on the same routes as those used for the movement of livestock across the border. Marijuana couriers mostly move at night to designated storage facilities, or to pick-up points along the national roads from where the dagga is transported inland. Sightings of marijuana couriers and 'donkey trains' by hikers, conservation officers, and the occasional police helicopter, are common in the Drakensberg.
Figure 4: Marijuana seizured by Group 9
Conclusion
It is evident that firearms play a role in the different crimes taking place along the KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho border. Many illegal firearms have been seized by the military in the area, but there are still large numbers of legal firearms passing through the border posts.
Both the SANDF and the police have knowledge of at least two vigilante groups operating from inland; attacking the marijuana couriers and 'robbing' them of their illegal cargo and/or money received for it. It is evident that there is an increased demand for marijuana as the military and the police are seizing growing quantities. The seizures of firearms and livestock, on the other hand, have declined over the last two months.
The military and police officers interviewed had their reservations about the speculation that firearms are being directly exchanged for livestock and/or marijuana. There is agreement that the criminals involved in these different activities are arming themselves for protection against the vigilante groups and law enforcement agencies,
but there is also concurrence that they are not engaged in large-scale barter of firearms for large-scale supplies of marijuana or livestock. It seems that firearms are supplied to people according to demand, but not on a scale where firearms are smuggled to the area to be traded for goods.
At the beginning of 2001 the Lesotho government ran an internal operation called 'Clean Sweep'. In this successful operation approximately 3 000 illegal firearms were seized from the local population. The one inevitable consequence of such operations is that they create a vacuum. Local people, regardless of whether they use firearms for self-protection or for criminal purposes, are likely to demand more firearms - and where else would they come from but South Africa?
Ettienne Hennop
Institute for Security Studies
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