South Africa’s strategic position along major sea routes has amplified its vulnerability to organised maritime crime, making it a major transit hub for cocaine smuggling, a new research report has revealed.
The report, titled ‘Securing Africa’s South Atlantic: A risk assessment of organised maritime crime’, released by Enhancing Africa’s Response to Organised Transnational Crime (Enact), maps transnational offences facilitated by vessels off Angola, Namibia and South Africa, highlighting challenges for trade and port operations.
South Africa, with a 3 000-km coastline and 1.5-million-km² exclusive economic zone (EEZ), relies on maritime transport for the mining and transport sectors, contributing to GDP.
Key Atlantic ports like Cape Town and Saldanha handled 211 million tonnes of cargo in 2024, according to the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA). The Red Sea crisis has driven up traffic volumes through the country’s ports over the past few years.
"Between December 2023 and March 2024, container vessel arrivals by gross tonnage increased by 328% in Cape Town alone,” the report noted.
It added that cocaine remained the primary drug entering Africa via the South Atlantic, using South Africa as a global transit hub.
"South Africa is a primary cocaine transit point globally, with seizures reaching 5.3 tonnes in 2023.”
In July 2024, 400 bricks of cocaine were found in a rubber duck in Still Bay, and in 2021, over a tonne of cocaine was seized from a converted fishing vessel in Saldanha.
Synthetic drugs and precursors (chemicals used to make drugs) transit Cape Town, with shipments also arriving from Asia.
"The United States Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has designated South Africa as a key importer of precursors globally,” the report noted.
South Africa is considered a key African node in global methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking.
“Together with Mozambique, South Africa is the African country where the most methamphetamine has been seized, and it is southern Africa’s largest methamphetamine consumer, and possibly one of the biggest globally,” the report found.
“Methamphetamine has been intricately linked to South Africa’s illegal abalone trade since Western Cape gangs began trading methamphetamine and methaqualone precursors with Chinese abalone buyers,” it said.
South Africa also receives cocaine from Mozambique, as Brazilian networks increasingly send maritime shipments via Lusophone Mozambique and Angola. The cocaine is then reportedly shipped to Europe via the Middle East to avoid strict controls in Western Europe.
Another problem is illegal fishing, which depletes stocks like abalone and West Coast rock lobster in the region.
“Illegal harvesting has severely depleted South Africa’s abalone and West Coast rock lobster stocks. Abalone trafficking is historically run from the Western Cape, which is considered South Africa’s gangster epicentre,” the report added.
Ports face bottlenecks: high volumes obscure illicit shipments, with methods like rip-on/rip-off and parasitic attachments making detection a challenge for the authorities.
"Ports are a non-competitive environment for traffickers, so they haven’t had to get too sophisticated,” the report said.
Small harbours lack surveillance and also attract smuggling.
"Since slipways and harbours are not considered ports of entry, they lack surveillance and border control measures,” it said.
TNPA and the South African Revenue Service oversee security, but overlapping mandates hinder responses.
The Border Management Authority aims to integrate efforts but struggles with funding. South African Navy patrols are also limited by resources, the report found.
"The head of the South African Navy has repeatedly stated that the navy is in crisis due to budget cuts, with only one frigate and no submarines operational,” it said.
Operation Phakisa coordinates inter-agency actions, with memorandums of understanding allowing pursuit into Namibia and Angola.
South Africa’s maritime surveillance is handicapped by outdated radar systems, and limited resources constrain counter-efforts. Participants were sceptical of the BMA’s short-term ability to protect South Africa’s ports and coastline.
It said the response to maritime criminality in the region was primarily focused on law enforcement with limited resources, while corruption enabled document manipulation.
The report recommends that the country finalise its National Maritime Security Strategy, enforce port state measures against IUU vessels, expand oversight to other TOCs at sea and digitise paperwork to curb fraud.
In neighbouring Namibia, flags of convenience facilitate illegal fishing on the Angola/Namibian border.
"Namibia has limited incidents of cocaine trafficking, but there is concern that trafficking and consumption are increasing,” the report said.
In 2018, 400 kg of cocaine from Brazil was seized in Walvis Bay.
The report found Angola was a popular cocaine transit point from Brazil to West and southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
"Illegal fishing activity is concentrated in the south near Benguela and Namibe provinces, close to Namibia’s border,” it pointed out.
In addition, attacks around Angola have taken the form of armed robberies and theft occurring on vessels nearshore.
