Originating in the region's mining and construction industries, explosives are used for illegal mining and robberies.
Art connoisseurs and collectors may not view rare artworks as commodities. But that is how cultural objects such as paintings, sculptures, antiquities and other cultural artifacts are perceived in the marketplace, where legitimate investors and businesses regard both the aesthetic and financial value of these art and cultural items. For those laymen who have no idea about the value of art, consider the following: Leonardo da Vinci's “Salvator Mundi”, a painting which measures 65.7 x 45.7 cm was sold in 2017 for $450 312 500 to the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism. This is currently the most expensive painting ever sold at auction (Odedra, 2020). However, illegitimate investors and businesses have found an additional value in these objects: the means to mask, move and leverage ill-gotten proceeds. Art and antiquities and other cultural artifacts may be traded for a range of other illicit commodities, such as firearms or drugs (SARPCCO, 2019).
In 1919, an Italian immigrant, Charles Ponzi, devised a scheme in which he persuaded almost 11 000 residents from Boston in the USA to invest approximately $20 million with him. He promised exceptionally high return rates within a short period of time by purchasing international reply coupons from other countries and then redeeming them in the US for postage stamps. Initially he was able to pay these exorbitant returns to initial investors by simply drawing from the capital investments received from subsequent investors. However, as the scheme was not based upon any viable underlying economic enterprise, it eventually collapsed when no more investors could be persuaded to make further investments. Through the years, a multitude of these types of schemes have surfaced across the world, which we refer to as Ponzi schemes.
The term is associated with crimes involving big money: cash-in-transit robberies, smuggling of precious metals and stones, smuggling of wildlife and animal parts, drug trafficking, crossborder vehicle crime and money laundering, to name a few. In the process we overlook the potential role of organised crime in the retail environment. Organised crime in the retail environment is about much more than an armed robbery at a shopping mall when a group of heavily armed criminals target shops trading in goods such as jewellery, IT equipment, cellphones and exclusive clothing. It also involves the large-scale theft of everyday consumer items such as baby formula, cigarettes, razors, over-the-counter medication, health and beauty items, designer brand clothing, accessories as well as electronics.
Overview of relevant legislation against abusive policing in the light of the specific case, Khosa and Others v Minister of Defence and Military Defence and Military Veterans and Others (21512/2020) [2020] ZAGPPHC 147; 2020 (7) BCLR 816 (GP); [2020] 3 All SA 190 (GP); [2020] 8 BLLR 801 (GP) (15 May 2020) [hereinafter referred to as the Khosa case].
