Willem Els: Another high-profile hit in the Assassination Nation

South Africa has been rocked by the second assassination of a private security company owner. In his latest interview with BizNews, Willem Els of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) speaks to Chris Steyn about the assassination of DJ Warras who was gunned down brazenly yesterday in the Johannesburg CBD under a CCTV camera in front of a hijacked building. He was killed on the eve of the memorial service for Witness D. Marius “Vlam” van der Merwe who had testified at the Madlanga Commission and had vowed to expose links of State officals to illegal mining, but was gunned down in front of his family. “If you have a problem, you're making a lot of money, you wanted to remove a problem, you call in the inkabi. The inkabi gets paid a few thousand rand and it just removes your problem.” Els charges that the organised crime syndicate king pins are “very often in government, in a political sphere, because they need to be able to afford protection for these syndicates. And these syndicates won't be so brazen if they don't know that they are being well protected.” Els warns that if government does not get the message and step up to change the status quo and come up with real good strategies to reclaim “our cities and our country…we might not have a country to work for and to live for”.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:02.098)South Africa has been rocked by the second assassination of a private security company owner. With me is Willem Els of Institute for Security Studies. Welcome Willem. Willem Els (00:13.848)Good afternoon Chris, thank you. Chris Steyn (00:16.562)DJ Warras gunned down, in the Johannesburg CBD, under a CCTV camera. Chris Steyn (00:27.08)No words. Willem Els (00:29.782)Yeah, indeed. In the first place…the investigation is still ongoing. So we don't have a lot of information to our disposal as yet. So we can make a few deductions and we can look at your open source information, but also at the information by the police statements. So yes, and when you look at that, it resembles very closely the assassination of AKA down in Durban. You know, also CCTV cameras in front of everybody, et cetera. And the linkage there may be both of them in the music industry and so on. But we can't draw any parallels or anything towards that at this stage because of limited information. But also, as you mentioned, apart from being quite a popular DJ, and he’s been there for some time. He’s got a huge following, but he also had some other ventures where you looked at the private security industry, co-owner of a company that was actually working in the CBD, according to the information, and then there might be some links there. But if you look at the CCTV camera and so on, was clearly no robbery. It was not robbery attempt. They didn't take anything…walked up to him, shot him and turned around and ran away. And that is very typical of what we see with the modus operand of the inkabis that are coming up to do the contract killings. Chris Steyn (02:01.384)Willem, he had been very vocal about cleaning up the inner city and reclaiming hijacked buildings. And apparently he had received threats from people in that very building where he was shot and had even taken out five protection orders. Willem Els (02:20.834)Yeah, if you look at the CBD of Johannesburg, you know, it is a free for all. They allowed it to deteriorate to such an extent that you've got a lot of hijacked buildings. And these hijacked buildings and all the other crime that is happening there, it is just not unrelated or unconnected; it’s organised syndicates that are behind that, and they are protected at the highest echelons. And your challenge that you sit with there is that I think maybe he stepped on a few toes. He was coming too close to.... And then what you see at the end of the day, due to the, and I would like to call it the collapse of our law and order pillar in our functioning State, or what's supposed to be a functioning State, we see that these people can actually function almost without any impunity. And that is your challenge that you are sitting with. If you have a problem, you're making a lot of money, you wanted to remove a problem, you call in the inkabi, the inkabi gets paid a few thousand rand and it just removes your problem. And it seems that is sort of the way to go amongst your organised crime syndicates in order to remove their challenges. Chris Steyn (03:34.044)Now, there have been battles for control of the inner city. Do you think this could turn into a full-scale war? Willem Els (03:43.402)It can, you know, and it all depends how it has been managed. So if governments, if the City Council steps up and they do the right things and they have the right strategies and they implement the right plans, we can avoid that. We will have to do that in order to stop it because the stronger these syndicates become, the more brazen they become, the more...blatant they will be in enforcing and stamping their rule and their authority compared to that of the rule of law. So it is now maybe the ideal opportunity while everything is now being scrutinised… that the Johannesburg City Council step up to the challenge, but also that the police step up to the challenge because at the end of the day it is their mandate and they have to fulfill it. Chris Steyn (04:32.519)Once again, we have had longstanding allegations of corruption in relation to hijacked buildings. Willem Els (04:40.728)Yeah, unfortunately, and then we've spoken about that before, Chris, your organised crime syndicates work, function on different levels. And you've got your voet soldier level, it goes up and up, organised. But right at the top where your kingpins are, those kingpins are very often in government, in a political sphere, because they need to be able to afford protection for these syndicates. And these syndicates won't be so brazen if they don't know that they are being well protected. And it came out in the Cat Matlala case and so on, that is currently before court. And I think much more will actually come out there. But also what we see that came out is, and that's what we've been saying for a long time, is that on senior political, police level, you also need that protection. And that came out how that operates also in the recent testimonies in front of the commission as well as at the Ad Hoc Committee. And if we don't get the message by now as government to step up and to change the status quo and to come up with real good strategies in order to reclaim our cities and our country… As I mentioned, your functioning State has got certain pillars. And one of the most important ones is your pillar of law and order, the rule of law. If you cannot strengthen that pillar, you know, once that pillar comes down, it will just bring down all the other pillars as well, one by one. And so that is where we are at the moment. Our law and order, rule of law pillar has crumbled. From your intelligence to your investigation, your policing, to your judiciary, it is really in serious trouble. And if we don't start to act on it now, we might not have a country to work for and to live for. Chris Steyn (06:32.424)Well, I don't know if you saw the social media post that Warrick had made about Cat Matlala? And then people were joking, I hope, that he could get killed. And he was still saying, he hoped he would make it to Christmas. Very chilling. Willem Els (06:50.902)Very telling. Yeah, we also see that, you know, Witness D also made those predictions once he started to speak out, you know. And, you know, people wouldn't, it might have been a joke or it might have been something in a lighter mode, but he would not have said that if maybe he didn't have some further information, because of course they will not bring out all those information, you know. But also if you look at the...another angle when I did a little bit of research on him and to see who he is because, of course, you know he's a - like I said - a very popular DJ fluent in Afrikaans English and IziZulu; he's got a huge following across the board; he's got, you know, he, yeah, he's like I said, he was very popular. But also we see…if you look at these, especially the security companies, you know what's happening with your taxi bosses and with the taxi industry and that’s …another sort of industry that want to exploit situations like what is happening with it, especially with the taxi industry, they register their own security companies. So every taxi boss has got his own security company and that security company then has access to firearms and all the other things and so on. And we don't know if they always use those firearms for what it was sort of bought and provided for. So, and that is, I think, fueling a lot of the taxi violence and assassinations that we have. But we see that also it seems from a little bit of research in there that DJ Warrick also went into partnership with one of the taxi bosses or families and they are also partners in his security company. We don't say... Willem Els (08:46.646)….that of course, that it is and they're doing a lot of things wrong there, but that is just a Red Light that is flickering there, that maybe there could have been something to that side. And that is what makes this one so interesting. As we say, he's made a lot of noise, he alienated some people, but also being involved with a cleaning-up operation where he stepped on toes of other syndicates. So all of that, could have been a combination of that, or it could have been one of them that triggered this assassination. Chris Steyn (09:20.616)This came on the eve of Witness D. Marius Vlam van der Merwe - who is being laid to rest today - his memorial service. Willem Els (09:31.128)Yeah, it is so sad, you know, and that brings to, that highlights just once again, you know, the failure of the system. If you look at your Witness Protection Programmmes, your legislation, your whistleblower legislation goes back to Babita Deokaran. It goes back to all these others. I mean, yesterday there was an article where they highlighted quite a few forensic investigators, auditors that have been eliminated, they've been taken out. And what is the protection of these people? They come to the forre, they discover some things and do the system fail them? I believe the system is really failing them. We are not doing what we're supposed to do. Otherwise we would not have had all these people that were deceased. Remember, that's all part of your organised crime fraternity….in intimidating your people from coming forth, intimidating people from not being whistleblowers, et cetera, et cetera. And that is where Vlam, when he stuck his neck out, he stuck it out very far, and he knew that there's going to be some consequences, and he mentioned that. And now we see that there's some reports that he refused the Witness Protection Programmme. Of course, it is voluntary, and now that will all come out in the washing. But at the end of the day, the system as it is at the moment is not really user friendly towards the whistleblower. It's very inclusive and if it works and yeah, it really takes a lot from the whistleblower, lot of sacrifice, et cetera, et cetera, in order to do so. I think we can make it much more user-friendly. We can go and have a look at other countries, especially countries that are in some of the challenges like us with your Mafia-style groups that are operating with the extortion and elimination. Like, for instance, Italy. How do they deal with that? And can we learn from their perspective….Read more:.Willem Els: How State-embedded actors fuel the criminal economy in SA.Willem Els (11:28.59)…and how they are doing it in countries like, for instance, Mexico. We are also in that upper quadrant with Mexico and with Italy, if you look at your Mafia State Index. So we can learn from them. But we can talk about this for a very long time, if there are no actions and there's no political will. We're going to have this discussion in two years' time again. Chris Steyn (11:53.128)Of course, William Witness D not only testified at the Madlanga Commission, but he had also vowed to go after the Zama Zamas and expose their links to State officials. So we don't know what the real reason was that he was taken out, just as we don't know what the real reason is that DJ Warras was taken out. But we are looking at two men with private security companies, their own private security companies, armed to the teeth. And they were gunned down in broad daylight, couldn't protect themselves. Where does it leave the rest of us? Willem Els (12:28.64)Yeah, you see the rest of us don't have access to or always access to the security measures that they do have to. Maybe, you know, whenever you work on this type of protection, you normally do it intelligence-based and evidence-based and do an analysis. And maybe these analysis or the analysis of his safety was not graded up to that extent that he needed bodyguards to protect him. Maybe it's always a schelp to...to walk around with a security detail. For some people it's a status symbol, but normally for the normal people it's a schlep to always work under those circumstances. So, we don't know why and if he had any other security details that were just following or whatever and what was in place. But obviously your...your syndicates and your assassins, they do their homework….They understand where they select the spots where they do it. And they also know what your detail is, security detail, et cetera, et cetera, to minimize the risk for them, but also to maximize their success. So, yeah, we don't know, but it is really tragic. Chris Steyn (13:42.44)So the hitmen in South Africa. If they want to get you, they will. Isn't that what has just been proven. Willem Els (13:51.342)Unfortunately, so, you if you look at all the assassinations, if you look at the people, the protection, the people that have been protected, especially why the the the PKTT was there in the first place to investigate those cases. And you see how these inkabis as they refer to these assassins, it is as if they just function with impunity because they know they've got protection, they do their homework and if they want to take you out, they take you out. If there's a price, if there's money involved and it's all about quick money for them as well. And if they want to take you out, need to take you out, they find a way to do that. Chris Steyn (14:33.586)So what you're saying, if somebody wants you dead in this country, you are dead. Willem Els (14:38.862)There is a way to do it unfortunately, because of the nature of organised crime, it's about money. And as long as there's funding to do so, you know, they will be able to do that. Chris Steyn (14:54.792)Willem, how do you rate the response of the police to these two assassinations? Willem Els (15:03.36)Well, you know, we can see because it's high profile, we saw that even the Acting Provincial Commissioner was on the scene and they also got involved. So what we would like to see is, and it will maybe happen, you know, as we look at your detective services, you know, there's the average, the average, I read the other day, workload of a detective at… stations, about 200 investigations, 200 dockets per month that this person has to investigate. So, even if it were 50, it's way too many for one detective to investigate, especially with the limited resources and also the expertise that is left in the police. So what we would like to see is that they are going to maybe pull again some task team or some dedicated investigators to get together, look at intelligence and look at hopefully what they are doing nowadays also is they follow the model of your prosecutor-guided investigation. They bring in the NPA on an early stage, minimise their mistakes, but they can do with the warrants of arrest and all the other things and just make sure that everything is perfect when they decide to take this case to court. So that is what we think is going to happen here because of the prominence of the case also. But it is sad that it only happens in prominent cases and not for you and me when we have someone that have been killed to be investigated. Chris Steyn (16:38.066)But even in the case of prominent people being assassinated…years later, the killers have not been arrested. Willem Els (16:48.878)Unfortunately so, you know, if you look and we spoke about that earlier as well, know, the detection rate in South Africa is 12.5 % for crime. For robberies, it is even lower, it's 9%. That means that if you kill someone, you've got a 12.5 % of ending up in prison. So, you know, if you're gambler, the odds are on your side. Unfortunately, that is the situation. Chris Steyn (17:15.197)As a researcher, expert researcher into organised crime, what do these hit men charge? Willem Els (17:23.372)It depends…and then you realize how cheap life has become, you know. It depends on the profile of the person, depends on difficulty and all…and the contract that’s given out. It's anything from about five to 10,000 rand to hundreds of thousands of rands. Chris Steyn (17:40.264)What do you think the DJ's hit would have cost? Willem Els (17:45.934)Yeah, that's one, because it's quite prominent and so on. And also, you know, the risk to them is because of the heightened sort of urgency about it, there will be better investigation. So your chances of being caught are there. So I think that would have been the higher sort… Chris Steyn (18:16.224)Any final thoughts on this era of assassinations in South Africa, Willem? Willem Els (18:19.47)You know, yeah, we always try to remain positive. You know, we have to, we're a nation. And we hope that the outcome that is, yeah, the interim report that is now being silenced, we will hope that implementation from that will be because we live with that, you know, organised crime, your assassinations, your killing of your DJs, your illegal mining, your cash and transit. All of them are interlinked. All of them work together and all of them have some link at some stage and all of them have only one thing in mind and that is making lots of money and, of course, then benefiting these people that are working with them. And as I mentioned earlier in another interview, know, it’s your State embedded actors that are facilitating and protecting these people. If we come up with a strategy to minimize that with our consequences, I think we will be able to cut off the head of the snake and then start a refresh. Chris Steyn (19:26.77)Thank you. That was Willem Els of the Institute for Security Studies speaking to BizNews about South Africa becoming assassination nation. I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you, Willem.

Willem Els: Another high-profile hit in the Assassination Nation

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