Drug dealing soars at OR Tambo airport

04 September 2013 - 02:56 By JAN BORNMAN
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City Lodge at OR Tambo International Airport. File picture
City Lodge at OR Tambo International Airport. File picture
Image: Jeremy Glyn

Illegal trading in drugs at South Africa's biggest airport has more than doubled in the wake of an influx of South American drug peddlers.

The South Gauteng division of the National Prosecuting Authority yesterday said there had been a 56% increase in drug-related crimes recorded at OR Tambo International Airport in 2011-2012.

It said there was an "urgent" need for Spanish translators in the Kempton Park area, on the East Rand, to cope with the increase in drug-related court cases involving South Americans.

Most of the drug peddlers come from Sao Paolo, Brazil, but the kingpins are yet to be unmasked.

The NPA's Raymond Mathenjwa said that though drug peddlers had been arrested securing the conviction of syndicate kingpins was not easy. Andrew Chauke, the NPA's South Gauteng director, yesterday presented a report highlighting some of the problems the NPA has had to deal with in the first quarter of the 2013-2014 financial year.

These included:

  • Failure of the police to cooperate with prosecutors. In one instance, a Roodepoort magistrate complained about the "flagrant disregard of the provisions of the Child Justice Act". A Hillbrow magistrate complained about "non-compliance of SAPS members with prosecutor instructions". This included witnesses not being subpoenaed and dockets not arriving in court on time.
  • "Animosity" between the regional court magistrates and their colleagues in the Westonaria Magistrate's Court was so bad that the regional court president had to intervene.
  • Inexperienced junior court staff felt they were not being supported by senior management. There was also "perceived interference by politicians".
  • Prosecutors were sometimes expected to work in "dire" conditions. The Randburg Magistrate's Court had no working photocopiers and/or paper for over six months. Its telephone lines were down for a "considerable period". Prosecutors in Orlando and Lenasia had become "frustrated and demoralised by their dire working conditions".

"These prosecutors do not have access to telephones, computers, textbooks or adequate furniture," the report said.

  • Some magistrates were accused of reporting late for work, leaving early and taking leave even when cases in which they were presiding had not been concluded.

The report said that, though reported crime had decreased, Johannesburg and its surrounds were still the "crime capital" of South Africa - accounting for half of all crime in the country.

The reports reveal that 23% of parents surveyed will not allow their children to play freely or move around unsupervised, and almost 16% will not allow their children to walk to school alone.

Crimes against children, such as abuse and murder, were on the increase in South Gauteng, as were cyber crimes and illegal wildlife trade.

There had been a "resurgence" of organised house and business robberies, and hijackings in the past three or four months.

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