Africa in Fact
Africa in Fact is Good Governance Africa’s flagship quarterly publication containing contributions from high-profile academics, journalists, researchers and corporate leaders from across the African continent. Each edition is carefully themed to reflect the major challenges of the day and what can feasibly be done to confront and address them. The content is highly curated, has a credible pan-African reach, and offers significant advertising opportunity to corporate clients.
Our editorial mission is to provide unique, curated in-depth content on themes as diverse, pertinent and interesting to Africa as the digital revolution, the low-carbon energy transition, liberation movements and informal economies. The publication also provides a platform for a diverse range of pan-African contributors, including GGA’S own in-house researchers, to learn and hone the art of long-form journalism.
Africa in Fact
ISSUE 64
Africa in Fact is Good Governance Africa’s flagship quarterly publication containing contributions from high-profile academics, journalists, researchers and corporate leaders from across the African continent. Each edition is carefully themed to reflect the major challenges of the day and what can feasibly done to confront and address them. The content is highly curated, has a credible pan-African reach, and offers significant advertising opportunity to corporate clients.
Our editorial mission is to provide unique, curated in-depth content on themes as diverse, pertinent and interesting to Africa as the digital revolution, the low-carbon energy transition, liberation movements and informal economies. The publication also provides a platform for a diverse range of pan-African contributors, including GGA’S own in-house researchers, to learn and hone the art of long-form journalism.
Editorial: Transnational crime an ever-evolving menace
Welcome to the first issue of Africa in Fact for 2023, which we devote to the phenomenon of transnational organised crime (TOC), an ever-evolving menace that threatens the security, well-being, and livelihoods of millions of people on this continent, subverting efforts at political, economic, and social development in the process. TOC is a broad term for a wide range of activities that include human trafficking and smuggling, illicit financial flows, money laundering, illicit trade in drugs,...
Transnational organised crime threatens Africa’s security
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s recent reports indicate that transnational organised crime has significantly increased to become a major security threat, especially in Africa, the second most affected continent. There are calls for coordinated responses based on the UN’s...
Organised crime is ahead of the game
In the aftermath of COVID-19, organised crime has soared across Africa. Indeed, as noted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), despite lockdowns and movement restrictions due to the pandemic, organised criminals were able to adapt more effectively than legal entities to the disruptions and...
Misinvoicing – The hidden hand of illicit financial flows
During testimony in September 2014 by the British mining multinational Lonmin Plc to the Marikana Commission of Inquiry into the events that led to the August 2012 shooting of mineworkers, commission evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson cross-examined Lonmin Director Mohamed Seedat about why Lonmin...
Transnational organised crime threatens Africa’s security
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s recent reports indicate that transnational organised crime has significantly increased to become a major security threat, especially in Africa, the second most affected continent. There are...
Organised crime is ahead of the game
In the aftermath of COVID-19, organised crime has soared across Africa. Indeed, as noted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), despite lockdowns and movement restrictions due to the pandemic, organised criminals were able to adapt more...
Misinvoicing – The hidden hand of illicit financial flows
During testimony in September 2014 by the British mining multinational Lonmin Plc to the Marikana Commission of Inquiry into the events that led to the August 2012 shooting of mineworkers, commission evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson...
Malawi – The weakest link
Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite making significant economic and structural reforms to sustain economic growth. The...
Follow the money in the illegal wildlife trade
Every year Africa loses $50 billion in illicit financial flows. This represents a huge lost opportunity in funds for economic investment in jobs,...
Africa’s diverse criminal landscape
The evolution of criminal networks across Africa is a complex tale crossing centuries – but the continent's integration into the global economy,...
Wildlife under siege
Humans are inextricably entwined with wildlife; the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals highlight that the conservation, protection,...
Armed and dangerous
Present-day arms trafficking in southern Africa can be traced to the protracted civil wars in Angola and Mozambique, as well as the struggle against...
Transnational corruption in Namibia blights a legacy
Shockwaves are still reverberating through Namibia due to cross-border scandals that have deeply scarred Hage Geingob’s presidency. On 12 November...
The ‘dons’ of gold – organised illegal mining
When Francis saw a group of miners accompanied by mine security personnel approaching him, he breathed a sigh of relief. At last, his almost 12-hour...
When crime does pay
Marianne*, a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) living in Nairobi, hosts two young women, one from Uganda and the other local, in her...
Lessons Learnt – Success in combatting wildlife crime requires collaboration
Recent analyses help us understand what is working to reduce organised wildlife crime, and it is more about organisational systems and resilience,...
Malawi – The weakest link
Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite making significant economic and structural reforms to sustain economic growth. The...
Follow the money in the illegal wildlife trade
Every year Africa loses $50 billion in illicit financial flows. This represents a huge lost opportunity in funds for economic investment in jobs,...
Africa’s diverse criminal landscape
The evolution of criminal networks across Africa is a complex tale crossing centuries – but the continent's integration into the global economy,...
A plague of flora and fauna crime
Africa is home to an abundance of animal and plant species that attract criminal wildlife exploitation. Wildlife crime is one of the most lucrative...
Whistleblowers – Stepping on the head of the snake
When Tiyamalu Kaswaswa arrived in Juba, South Sudan, in June 2018, he had high hopes for the prospects that his new job held out. An accountant from...
Wildlife under siege
Humans are inextricably entwined with wildlife; the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals highlight that the conservation, protection,...
Armed and dangerous
Present-day arms trafficking in southern Africa can be traced to the protracted civil wars in Angola and Mozambique, as well as the struggle against...
Transnational corruption in Namibia blights a legacy
Shockwaves are still reverberating through Namibia due to cross-border scandals that have deeply scarred Hage Geingob’s presidency. On 12 November...
The ‘dons’ of gold – organised illegal mining
When Francis saw a group of miners accompanied by mine security personnel approaching him, he breathed a sigh of relief. At last, his almost 12-hour...
When crime does pay
Marianne*, a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) living in Nairobi, hosts two young women, one from Uganda and the other local, in her...
Africa Organised Crime Index 2021
A plague of flora and fauna crime
Africa is home to an abundance of animal and plant species that attract criminal wildlife exploitation. Wildlife crime is one of the most lucrative illegal industries and it attracts – and is run – by sophisticated, transnational, well-organised criminal networks seeking to exploit the high...
Whistleblowers – Stepping on the head of the snake
When Tiyamalu Kaswaswa arrived in Juba, South Sudan, in June 2018, he had high hopes for the prospects that his new job held out. An accountant from Malawi, Kaswaswa had been hired by Trinity Energy, a firm operating in the petroleum market of the young country. It was a good job, offering good...
Lessons Learnt – Success in combatting wildlife crime requires collaboration
Recent analyses help us understand what is working to reduce organised wildlife crime, and it is more about organisational systems and resilience, bottom-up approaches and strengthening local rule of law than tactical brilliance. Wildlife crime (defined as the whole value chain from illegal...
The fight against cross-border child trafficking
“I was entrusted to a woman who wanted a servant in Cotonou. I got up at 5am and worked about 18 hours a day. I spent two years with my employer without being able to speak with my parents. I suffered a lot of physical abuse until the day I decided to flee. I came back to Togo thanks to the help...
A slave by any other name is still a slave
Around 50% of Malawians are poor and close to a quarter are unemployed. This has made most people, particularly the young, desperate for money-making opportunities, a situation that traffickers and their agents take advantage of. They convince people to seek "greener pastures" abroad. Malawi is a...
Explosives smuggling is a ticking time bomb
Fortunate Sibanda is cramped in a minibus taxi with 15 other passengers. Hot and stuffy, the passengers’ eyes are fixed on the police and customs officers on the road in front of them. Fortunate nervously holds on to her bag with the money they gave her – money to bribe the officers at the border...
BOOK REVIEWS
Book review – An action page-turner with academic precision
Hitmen for hire: Exposing South Africa’s underworld, Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2017 In September 2022 the Global Initiative (GI) Against Transnational Organized Crime released a strategic assessment of the existential threat to South Africa that is organised crime. Development economics is clear that strong institutions – the social systems that motivate regular human behaviour – propel broad-based growth. Organised crime systematically erodes those institutions, undermining the rule of law, which in turn prevents investment from flowing into the country and generating poverty-alleviating growth: “Organised crime is inflicting a devastating toll on the political, economic and social fabric of South Africa, from central government to rural municipalities, and from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to the spaza shop.” Five years earlier, Mark Shaw, Director of the Global Initiative, released Hitmen for Hire: Exposing South Africa’s...
The fight against cross-border child trafficking
“I was entrusted to a woman who wanted a servant in Cotonou. I got up at 5am and worked about 18 hours a day. I spent two years with my employer without being able to speak with my parents. I suffered a lot of physical abuse until the day I decided to flee. I came...
A slave by any other name is still a slave
Around 50% of Malawians are poor and close to a quarter are unemployed. This has made most people, particularly the young, desperate for money-making opportunities, a situation that traffickers and their agents take advantage of. They convince people to seek "greener...
Explosives smuggling is a ticking time bomb
Fortunate Sibanda is cramped in a minibus taxi with 15 other passengers. Hot and stuffy, the passengers’ eyes are fixed on the police and customs officers on the road in front of them. Fortunate nervously holds on to her bag with the money they gave her – money to...
