Liquidation fights have become lethal — assassinations replace court battles while impunity rewards violence and silences whistleblowers.
We’ve all heard of the persistent debt collectors for the SABC, chasing up those viewers who don’t pay their TV licences. But these days, debt collecting has evolved into a deadly, menacing activity.
As it was with the gangsters and protection rackets in Al Capone’s Chicago, some people in South Africa who are owed money are resorting to strong-arm tactics and death threats to get their money.
And, if the cash doesn’t materialise, they’re not beyond putting out a hit, getting the debtor gunned down.
Security experts says this is yet more evidence that those involved in legal brawls are opting to assassinate, rather than litigate.
This is particularly evident in liquidation proceedings, when disgruntled creditors realise they’re only going to get a fraction of what they’re owed.
Recently, liquidation attorney Bouwer van Niekerk was shot dead in broad daylight in a meeting with two men in his Sandton office boardroom.
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He joined a list of whistle-blowers who have been assassinated to stop legal processes in their tracks.
Prominent among them is Gauteng health department official Babita Deokaran, who exposed looting of hundreds of millions of rands from Tembisa Hospital.
It’s now almost three years since her murder in 2022 and the string-pullers who ordered the hit have still not been brought to book.
The original phrase about Gauteng’s GP number plates standing for “Gangsters’ Paradise” is no longer a joke – it is a horrifying reality.
And the reason? Look no further than the current Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is probing allegations by top KwaZulu-Natal cop Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that senior cops and politicians are in bed with criminal mafias.
Overall, crime seldom has consequences in our unfit-for-purpose criminal justice system. That makes killing the attractive option.
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