By Kouthar Sambo
The Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) failed to address the gold and tobacco mafia adequately. This comes amid the network being under extensive investigation while the reluctance by these authorities to act aggravates South Africa’s attempts to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey listing by June 2025. Speaking on VOC’s PM Drive show on Wednesday, organized crime expert, Chad Thomas, said a lot of gold that came in from Zimbabwe has been mixed and mingled with local products and sent offshore.
“We are talking about monies made from illicit tobacco, which became even bigger during COVID, where they used organised crime syndicates that were established within various environments to market and sell their products.”
“The discovery of this matter is not new. The problem we have is: When is the state going to act? Just because something is published in the media or brought up in the Commission of Inquiry or a civil context doesn’t necessarily meet the requirement to prosecute. There is a high degree of probability that has to be proven because you will be taking away someone’s liberty,” detailed Thomas.
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