# Southern Africa risks becoming production hub of drugshub

An episode of [The Midday Report with Mandy Wiener](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1074292047), 16 Oct 2026, 5:37.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/5dcefa8e-00a9-4595-8ce1-a4ab0080f142/fe8d1a9a-a053-424d-9f40-a57500d5394b/505ce1fe-7a23-49f3-a57d-b4e500adef75/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=18146681-7843-46cf-9a9c-a57500d59fe7

Mandy Wiener speaks to Court Expert and former Specialist Reservist in the South African Police, Stan Bezuidenhout about how Southern Africa is turning into a significant hub for the manufacture of illegal drugs as strong criminal organizations strengthen their hold on the area, as Police Minister Firoz Cachalia predicted The Midday Report with Mandy Wiener is 702 and CapeTalk’s flagship news show, your hour of essential news radio. The show is podcasted every weekday, allowing you to catch up with a 60-minute weekday wrap of the day's main news. It's packed with fast-paced interviews with the day’s newsmakers, as well as those who can make sense of the news and explain what's happening in your world. All the interviews are podcasted for you to catch up and listen to. Thank you for listening to this podcast of The Midday Report Listen live on weekdays between 12:00 and 13:00 (SA Time) to The Midday Report broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from The Midday Report go to https://buff.ly/BTGmL9H and find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/LcbDdFI Subscribe to the 702 and CapeTalk daily and weekly newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: We've seen a number of very high profile drug busts
[0:03] Speaker 1: being made over the past few weeks of not just
[0:06] Speaker 1: drugs in transit, but drugs laboratories. And the police minister,
[0:10] Speaker 1: the acting police minister that is, is warning that South
[0:14] Speaker 1: Africa and Southern Africa is no longer just a drug route,
[0:17] Speaker 1: but it is now a production hub. And there are
[0:20] Speaker 1: a number of cases that we can refer to here.
[0:23] Speaker 1: The list is very, very long. You would have heard
[0:26] Speaker 1: about many of these on this show, for example. But recently,
[0:31] Speaker 1: a bust in Grassy Park where 69,000 Mandrax tablets were seized.
[0:36] Speaker 1: Last week, we had that farm in Kruger's Dorp where
[0:38] Speaker 1: a multi-million rand drug manufacturing laboratory was uncovered. We had
[0:42] Speaker 1: that big one near Hart Beerspoort as well. So let's
[0:45] Speaker 1: speak now to Stan Besaidnot, who is a court and
[0:48] Speaker 1: crimes expert and a former special reservist. Stan, good afternoon
[0:52] Speaker 1: to you. Thanks very much for your time. Would you
[0:55] Speaker 1: agree with the sentiment from the acting police commissioner that
[0:57] Speaker 1: we are now becoming a production hub?
[1:01] Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Mandy, firstly, and to your listeners, thank you
[1:03] Speaker 2: for having me on. Yes, so we must think about
[1:07] Speaker 2: this very carefully. There are two ways in which drugs
[1:11] Speaker 2: manifest in any environment. It's either because there's a big
[1:14] Speaker 2: market and it's something that's locally available, as in there's
[1:17] Speaker 2: many people demanding drugs, or it is structured in international,
[1:21] Speaker 2: let's call it multi-jurisdictional, where it's a route a gateway
[1:25] Speaker 2: or even a terror funding platform. So in my mind,
[1:28] Speaker 2: the spike we've seen, we were just from last year,
[1:30] Speaker 2: January to now, just the cases I know about is
[1:32] Speaker 2: probably in excess of close to 2 billion rands worth
[1:35] Speaker 2: of drugs that's moved in, around and on South African soil.
[1:40] Speaker 2: And anything at that size, I don't think is adequate
[1:44] Speaker 2: to claim local feed. It's not a matter of our
[1:47] Speaker 2: population is using so much drugs that we are consuming
[1:50] Speaker 2: 2 billion rands worth or much more. I think there's
[1:54] Speaker 2: something bigger behind all this.
[1:57] Speaker 1: So the sense that you're getting from these big arrests
[1:59] Speaker 1: that have just taken place where there is evidence of production,
[2:03] Speaker 1: what does that tell us?
[2:06] Speaker 2: So that tells us that we are evolving. There was
[2:08] Speaker 2: a time in South Africa, remember, whenever you've got a
[2:11] Speaker 2: major syndicated crime operation, you place it into an area
[2:16] Speaker 2: where law enforcement is less likely to act on it.
[2:20] Speaker 2: And I'm just going to call in. Let's say it's
[2:22] Speaker 2: easier in Malawi than in South Africa to get away
[2:25] Speaker 2: with drug laboratories. You'll find them there in shipping over
[2:27] Speaker 2: the border. But by the time you see them popping
[2:30] Speaker 2: up locally, it tells me that there's an export market. Now,
[2:33] Speaker 2: all of a sudden, there must have been either some
[2:35] Speaker 2: kind of pressure, such as the pressure from northern Mozambique
[2:39] Speaker 2: with Boko Haram, et cetera, being challenged by military and
[2:42] Speaker 2: by organized, let's call it, enforcement groups. And now we
[2:46] Speaker 2: have a new market developing. And I think Firstly, I
[2:49] Speaker 2: think drug production has always been happening in South Africa,
[2:53] Speaker 2: but the size is increasing and it indicates an international
[2:57] Speaker 2: market or an export market rather than some kind of
[3:00] Speaker 2: local market.
[3:01] Speaker 1: The police minister also speaking about how syndicates are exploiting
[3:05] Speaker 1: maritime routes through countries such as Mozambique and Tanzania before
[3:09] Speaker 1: moving drugs into South Africa. Is this a new thing
[3:12] Speaker 1: or what are we seeing happening here?
[3:14] Speaker 2: No, that's normal. The drug trafficking route has always been maritime.
[3:17] Speaker 2: It's It's so much easier to transport drugs via maritime
[3:21] Speaker 2: platforms because you can bypass harbors, you can basically beach anywhere,
[3:26] Speaker 2: you can have people meet on and off ships. Just
[3:29] Speaker 2: imagine a scenario when an actual cargo ship is transporting
[3:33] Speaker 2: a large amount of drugs and as they travel through
[3:36] Speaker 2: the actual maritime route, they have smaller vessels come out,
[3:39] Speaker 2: collect the drugs for the local market and then land
[3:42] Speaker 2: offshore on all the areas that are not enforced. So
[3:45] Speaker 2: that's why that maritime component has always been there And
[3:48] Speaker 2: there's been a big link between terror funding and funding
[3:52] Speaker 2: for the likes of even the piracy groups, because funding
[3:55] Speaker 2: is always a thing needed. And that funding has to
[3:58] Speaker 2: come from somewhere. And you have to acquire that funding
[4:00] Speaker 2: from an environment where there's poor enforcement, porous borders, broken
[4:05] Speaker 2: judiciary system, good money or good currency to rely on, etc.
[4:10] Speaker 2: And South Africa is really almost a perfect storm for
[4:12] Speaker 2: all of this.
[4:13] Speaker 1: And of course, a lot of focus on the capabilities
[4:15] Speaker 1: of law enforcement with the Midlander Commission, etc. Are we
[4:19] Speaker 1: able to deal with this evolution in drug trade?
[4:24] Speaker 2: We are supposed to be, but my confidence levels are
[4:27] Speaker 2: unfortunately low. The problem is we still have a very
[4:30] Speaker 2: reactive crime enforcement mentality. I mean, our specialized investigation services
[4:36] Speaker 2: are so tied up in political feuds and crimes inter-party
[4:40] Speaker 2: disputes and assassinations of witness for internal crime, etc., that
[4:44] Speaker 2: one wonders whether they even have the free resources to
[4:47] Speaker 2: commit to something of this kind. And remember, drugs has
[4:51] Speaker 2: always been seen as kind of a crime where there's
[4:55] Speaker 2: not really a victim because the attitude is easy. If
[4:57] Speaker 2: you don't do drugs, you shouldn't worry about it. So
[4:59] Speaker 2: it's not as concerning. I'll give you a perfect example.
[5:03] Speaker 2: There's much more being done about cash in transit, money
[5:07] Speaker 2: being lost, etc., than, for instance, drugs at the moment,
[5:10] Speaker 2: as far as I can detect, because drugs is something
[5:13] Speaker 2: that comes and goes, and if you catch it, it's
[5:14] Speaker 2: kind of like illicit cigarettes almost. But when it comes
[5:18] Speaker 2: to local large groups that are operating at this coordination level,
[5:23] Speaker 2: I think we're going to have to start committing additional resources.
[5:26] Speaker 2: You can't use what we have. It simply might not
[5:28] Speaker 2: be enough.
[5:29] Speaker 1: Stan, thank you so much. Stan Besaid, a court expert,
[5:31] Speaker 1: former reservist as well, speaking to us there about the
[5:35] Speaker 1: evolution of the drug trade.

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