A disconcerting portrait of South Africa’s underworld: Tymon Smith reviews Hitmen for Hire
More about the book!
Hitmen for Hire by Mark Shaw debunks the myth that assassinations and political killings belong to South Africa’s past, according to Tymon Smith.
Shaw is director of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime and senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science’s International Drug Policy Project, and was until recently National Research Foundation Professor of Justice and Security at the Centre of Criminology, University of Cape Town, where he is now an adjunct professor.
Marianne Thamm recently recommended the book, publicly, to Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula.
In a recent review for The Times, Smith writes that Hitmen for Hire is no ‘sensationalist piece of true crime’:
Yes, you will find names such as Cyril Beeka, Radovan Krejcir, Victor Palazzolo and leaders of Cape Flats drug gangs in these pages but you will also find a disconcerting portrait of an underworld propped up by relations with corrupt police and other state officials, which has participated in the resolution of political infights and taxi disputes and has ensured that underneath the reconciliatory façade of post-apartheid South Africa is a dark and fear-inducing network that has ensured “the dark hand of assassination stalks the land”.
Smith believes the awareness of South Africa’s underworld that Shaw’s book provides is ‘a significant step towards a resolution’.
Click on the link above for the full review.
Click here to read an excerpt.
Categories Non-fiction South Africa
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