Does the PA Have Links to Organised Crime and the Drug Trade?

Statement by JP Smith – DAWC Metro Chairperson:

The DA is writing to the SAPS, SARS, the Hawks and the IEC to request urgent investigations into the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Gayton McKenzie’s links to organised crime, and how McKenzie is allegedly benefitting from drug-related income to fund his political party.

We call for:

• SARS to conduct lifestyle audits on McKenzie and top leadership.
• The National Police Commissioner and Hawks to probe these explosive claims.
• The IEC to start acting on the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA).

McKenzie’s alleged links to drug-related organised crime were recently spotlighted in the Madlanga Commission, and these allegations were backed up by a voice recording that was leaked last week in which a Johannesburg-based PA Ward Councillor alleged that the PA is running drug businesses, that she was taken by a PA member to a drug house of a senior PA leader, and that she has video evidence of this.

What is concerning is that the Ward Councillor didn’t deny the allegations she made in the video when confronted about it on social media but rather attempted to dismiss it by saying that it was old news from 2022.

A somewhat implausible explanation was offered, suggesting that the voice recording had been manipulated. This seems unlikely, given that the other party to the call was in prison at the time and using a cellphone he was not permitted to have, allegedly supplied by Gayton McKenzie.

It is difficult to see how he could have falsified such a call using only that device. In any event, the facts can no longer be left to doubt or speculation.

The evidence became even more damning over the weekend when eNCA broadcast their interview with Jermaine Prim, in which he accuses Gayton McKenzie of crimes, including dealing in illegal drugs and gangsterism.

There is now no other option for the National Police Commissioner but to investigate these claims. It is very clear which PA leader is alleged to be involved with the drug trade, their links to organised crime, the numbers gangs, and the properties in question.

We also call on SARS to intervene, as the PA’s conspicuous display of wealth and the large inducements which public representatives in various parties have claimed were offered to them by the PA to leave their parties and join the PA, warrant lifestyle audits.

The PPFA also makes it clear that political parties cannot accept money from persons involved in organised crime and have a responsibility to report it when discovered. Therefore, we also call on the IEC to probe these allegations.

The time has come for the IEC to start acting on the PPFA. If the PA took money from people they knew to be involved in organised crime, it is a violation of the Act and needs to be acted on.

We have long been warning of the risks of gangs becoming more sophisticated, better funded and organised and infiltrating government. South Africa is running the risk of becoming like some South American “narco states”, where organised criminal gangs become a parallel government.

In South Africa, organised crime groups have been trying to get a foothold in government for years with increasing intensity. The Zondo Commission, state capture enquiry and more recently the Madlanga Commission have demonstrated this.

Over time, the City of Cape Town has been able to repel such attempts by gangsters to gain power in the City or capture its systems. The City invested in investigative resources which were able to identify such attempts and which allowed the City Manager to terminate contracts involving organised crime figures and to blacklist them and their companies. That is why the City’s track of record of clean audits and service delivery stands head and shoulders above other metros in South Africa.

Equally, the attempts over the years by criminal syndicates to gain political power have been fended off. However, these were smaller and less well-funded. Now, however, the PA poses a major risk of a power grab by those allegedly linked to crime syndicates, gangs and corruption.

Our City is already facing violent crime linked to gangs and organised crime, alongside a national political environment that has eroded SAPS and the criminal justice system and thereby enabled corruption.

In Cape Town, there are many good people who have tried to hold the line against this: people in the City, SAPS, the Hawks and in public office who have guarded the gates against these types of attacks, but it will mean little if government is infiltrated by the same organisations that do the shooting.

It is time for the relevant authorities to take action to safeguard our democracy. SAPS, SARS and the IEC need to defend our democracy from being hijacked by organised crime.