By Kotie Geldenhuys
Photos courtesy of Freepik and BMA
Across continents, beneath the official signs at checkpoints and immigration desks, a hidden world of transnational organised crime thrives, feeding on gaps in national borders, weak enforcement and international loopholes. Transnational organised crime includes a wide range of illicit activities, from money laundering and human trafficking to smuggling drugs, weapons and contraband goods across borders. These criminal networks operate across borders and geographies, undermining governance, security and communities everywhere.
South Africa’s long and largely unmonitored border, stretching over more than 4800 km with six neighbouring countries, has become a hub for cross-border crime. Gaps in physical barriers and limited surveillance have enabled syndicates to smuggle stolen vehicles, drugs, illegal firearms and even people through unmonitored crossings or by floating them across rivers. Policing such a vast physical land border is not feasible through traditional means alone. Much of the terrain is remote and difficult to access, requiring advanced surveillance capabilities to augment current capacity, especially given limited resources. The presence of 51 ports of entry allows criminal networks to exploit vulnerabilities by targeting the weakest points, often without even engaging the land borders directly.
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[This is only an extract of an article published in Servamus: March 2026. This article is available for purchase.]