Sir Victor Walsh Oluwafemi, President and Founder of the Africa Development Studies Centre (ADSC), has unveiled a major historical and policy research presentation examining the origins of organised crime, armed robbery, drug trafficking and criminal economies in South Africa.
The study challenges longstanding narratives linking Nigerians to the emergence of crime and drug networks in the country, concluding that historical evidence does not support such claims.
The research, titled Crime, Drugs, Apartheid and Historical Memory: Reassessing the Origins of Organised Crime in South Africa, was presented under ADSC's continental governance and security studies initiative. It provides extensive historical analysis showing that South Africa had established criminal gangs, violent robbery networks, illicit cannabis trade systems and anti-drug legislation decades before the end of apartheid and long before significant Nigerian migration.
According to Victor Walsh Oluwafemi, South Africa enacted formal anti-drug laws as early as 1922, particularly targeting cannabis, locally known as "dagga".
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Historical records cited in the study indicate that by the mid-twentieth century, the country was already associated with significant cannabis seizures and underground illicit trade activities.
The research traces the roots of violent crime in South Africa to colonial and apartheid-era systems, including racial segregation, forced removals, economic exclusion, migrant labour structures, township underdevelopment, political violence, gang formation, illegal arms circulation and institutional inequality.
Presenting the findings, Oluwafemi said: "Historical evidence must prevail over emotional narratives, misinformation, and xenophobic assumptions. Crime and drug trafficking in South Africa did not begin with Nigerians, nor were Nigerians responsible for introducing criminality into the country. The roots are deeply historical, structural, political, and socio-economic."
He noted that by 1992, before the country's democratic transition in 1994, South Africa already recorded some of the highest violent crime rates globally, including murder rates estimated at about 77 per 100,000 people and armed robbery rates exceeding 375 per 100,000, based on documented institutional studies.
According to the presentation, South Africa's reintegration into the global economy after apartheid, alongside expanding trade routes, porous borders, rising unemployment, global narcotics demand and weak transitional institutions, contributed to the growth of transnational organised crime involving multiple nationalities.
The ADSC research clarified that although some foreign criminal networks, including Nigerian syndicates, later became involved in organised criminal activities in post-apartheid South Africa, there is no historical basis for attributing the origins of the country's criminal ecosystem to Nigerians.
Oluwafemi warned against nationality-based stereotyping, noting that such narratives fuel xenophobia, social division and diplomatic tensions across Africa.
"Reducing highly complex historical and institutional realities to nationality-based accusations only fuels social division, xenophobia, diplomatic tensions, and misinformation across Africa. The real issues remain inequality, governance failures, unemployment, organised criminal evolution, institutional weaknesses, and historical injustice," he said.
The study also explores the evolution of organised gangs in the Western Cape, township criminal economies during apartheid, illicit mining activities, smuggling corridors and the growth of narcotics trafficking following South Africa's international reintegration in the 1990s.
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It forms part of ADSC's broader continental work on governance systems, migration studies, institutional resilience, organised crime, public policy, regional stability and security sector reforms across Africa.
Key findings show that South Africa had anti-drug legislation before 1930, established illicit drug enforcement systems long before Nigerian migration, and entrenched organised gangs and armed robbery networks during colonial and apartheid periods.
The study further found that crime rates escalated sharply during the late apartheid transition period of the 1980s and early 1990s, while post-apartheid organised crime evolved into a transnational system involving both local and international actors.
