Crime Expert Warns Politics Is Becoming One of SA’s Most Dangerous Jobs
- A senior advisor to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime warned that political killings in SA are increasing
- Julian Rademeyer said nearly 200 political assassination cases have been documented in South Africa since 2000
- He cautioned that South Africans may be growing desensitised to political violence as incidents receive little media attention
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Working in politics in South Africa could cost you your life. That is the stark warning from Julian Rademeyer, senior advisor to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, who says politically motivated killings remain a serious and growing threat heading into another local government election cycle.
According to a report by BusinessTech, research tracking targeted killings has documented close to 200 political assassinations over the past 20 years. The numbers are not evenly spread across time. Violence surges sharply around local government election cycles, which account for more than half of all recorded cases.
The reason is straightforward. Local government controls access to municipal resources, state contracts and key administrative appointments. When those resources shrink, and competition intensifies, disputes that might elsewhere be resolved through ballots or boardrooms are instead settled with bullets.
Where the Violence Is Worst
KwaZulu-Natal remains the most dangerous province for anyone involved in civic life. But the threat has expanded well beyond party politicians. Community activists and civic organisation leaders have increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs, with deaths recorded across multiple provinces in 2026 alone.
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The violence rarely operates in isolation. Political rivalries frequently intersect with organised crime networks, local taxi syndicates and protection rackets, creating a combustible environment where personal and financial motives become difficult to separate from political ones.
A growing culture of impunity
What makes the situation particularly alarming is how affordable political violence has become. Hiring a hitman in South Africa can cost anywhere from R5,000 to R100,000, placing contract killings within reach for a wide range of individuals and factions. That accessibility, combined with limited law enforcement capacity and slow prosecution rates, has created an atmosphere where perpetrators act with little fear of consequences.
The crime expert warned that South Africa is approaching a critical threshold. When contract killings become a routine instrument of political competition, and when the public grows desensitised to hearing about them, violence risks being absorbed into the ordinary mechanics of governance. That normalisation, researchers argue, may be the most dangerous outcome of all.
Source: Getty Images
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Source: Briefly News
