Hitmen For Hire: Exposing South Africa's Underworld by Mark Shaw Published by Jonathan Ball, 2017, 296 pp., £17.00, paperback.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12264
• Date: 01 November 2018
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Author: John M. Sellar

HITMEN FOR HIRE: EXPOSING SOUTH AFRICA'S

UNDERWORLD by Mark Shaw

Published by Jonathan Ball, 2017, 296 pp., £17.00, paperback.

It's all about context. If your homeland was one that has appallingly

high rates of murder; widespread organized crime, the tentacles of

which reach into almost every corner of national and local govern-

ment; a history of extreme violence on the part of some police offi-

cers; wholly inappropriate links between criminals and those tasked

with gathering intelligence about them; and allegations of horren-

dous levels of corruption among senior politicians, including some

directed at the nation's President, it might not seem prudent to write

publicly about such matters, and even more potentially reckless, start

naming names. However, that is exactly what Mark Shaw, to my

mind courageously, opted to do. And if that was not potentially risky

enough, he then determined to focus on the murders committed

within South Africa in recent years, which he has classified as ‘assas-

sinations’or, as the title reflects, ‘hits’and the men –but also some-

times women –who carry them out.

As a South African national, Shaw lived through apartheid and

knows very well what that form of government was like, compared

with the alleged ‘democracy’that displaced it. Indeed, some might

say that the current arrangements have yet to fully replace the pre-

vious system or, at least, adequately and truly serve the country's

citizens without merely exchanging one form of discrimination for

another. During his early career, he held government and civil society

positions, working on public security and urban violence issues, dur-

ing the transition period. Later, as an official of the United Nations

Office on Drugs and Crime, and subsequently as a consultant, he

studied organized crime across many parts of the world. Mark Shaw

is also a highly respected academic, serving as a Senior Visiting Fellow

at the London School of Economics and Political Science Ideas Inter-

national Drugs Project and Professor of Justice and Security in the

University of Cape Town's Department of Criminology. If these were

not already more than sufficient credentials, he is currently Director

of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (which

has conducted sterling work in relation to environmental crime, par-

ticularly organized wildlife crime). It might therefore be hard to find

anyone better‐placed or better‐qualified to tackle this issue.

This dramatic backdrop provides an intriguing context by which

to consider the problems facing the enforcement of environmental

law in South Africa, with particular reference to wildlife and natural

resources crime. Hitmen for Hire is based upon very extensive

research and draws on sources such as official statistics and media

reports, but its greatest strength is the information that has been

gleaned, and painstakingly assessed, from extensive interviews with

individuals who inhabit what the author terms the ‘underworld’and

the ‘upperworld’. Shaw and his assistants have spoken with not just

those who admit to being assassins, and those who contracted them

to commit killings, but also those on the periphery, who have

extraordinary and very infrequently accessed or publicized insights

into those murky and extremely violent worlds. Fascinatingly and

enlighteningly, the book makes clear that those in the upperworld –

businessmen, politicians, government officials and police officers –

can often be just as repulsive characters as the more readily disliked

and readily recognizably unpleasant prostitutes, gang members, crim-

inals and organized crime network bosses of the underworld. The

residents of both worlds exploit each other very effectively, albeit

shamelessly and disgracefully. Each, in so many ways, depends upon

the other for ‘success’. Shaw also makes clear that, if any progress is

to be made in cleaning up these worlds, each is deserving of atten-

tion. Indeed, one is left with the distinct impression that the upper-

world perhaps warrants greater priority.

Numerous cases of murders that fit Shaw's assassination classifi-

cation criteria are described, some in great detail and at considerable

length. Commendable effort is made to seek out what prompted

them and, if possible, identify who ordered them, conducted them

and, lastly, whether those responsible (whichever part they played)

were ever brought to justice. All too frequently and depressingly,

few individuals appear before the courts or end up seeing the rear

of a cell door. Moreover, the book explains why the political climate

of South Africa, during apartheid, during transition and now today,

was, and remains, fertile ground for the growth of organized crime,

corruption and specifically targeted murders that warrant being

described as assassinations. It offers fascinating glimpses into that

underworld, and the author and his assistants deserve our admir-

ation for the risks they must have taken in deliberately searching out

some of its occupants and then persuading them to be interviewed.

One also imagines, however, that approaching some upperworld resi-

dents must at times have been equally hazardous.

One is also left with the impression that aspects of life in South

Africa, and particularly parts of its government, some specific spheres

of business and certainly its law enforcement community, have

become so mired in corruption, malpractice and violence that it must

be next to impossible to operate in areas of these realms if one is

honest or wishes to live life by the rule of law. For my part, during a

visit to Cape Town in recent years, I experienced hardly any conver-

sations, with people from all walks of life and who held very contrast-

ing positions in society, where they did not voice concern about how

widespread corruption is in the nation. Some were utterly despairing

and saw no promise of improvement. Consequently, in a very small

way, I can offer personal corroboration of the book's findings.

This is a very fine piece of work, but it is important for the pur-

poses of this review to return to the issue of why it may be relevant

for those with an interest in environmental law. There are brief men-

tions in the book of the way in which trade in abalone is controlled

by organized crime, how that trade is closely interlinked with drug

trafficking, and how both come under the control of South African

nationals and also Chinese nationals, some of whom are allegedly

linked to Triad groups. I have personal knowledge of how South

Africa's response to criminal exploitation of this marine species has,

overall, been inadequate.

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12264

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