Free Trackers by Deon Meyer Page B

Presidential Intelligence Agency operative, the greatest
advantage and disadvantage was the fact that the building was relatively small
and the airport reasonably quiet. Departures and Arrivals were alongside each
other, and easy to watch. But someone trying to be discreet there had little
place to hide.
    Rohn was a fifty-one-year-old veteran. Therefore he stood at
the windows looking out over the runway to make sure he identified Osman when
he disembarked from the plane, and on the way to the building. Rohn memorised
his face, the colour of the tailored suit (light brown), the open-collared
shirt (light blue) and the small black travelling case that Osman dragged along
on wheels.
    Then he walked out of the building, across the grey-paved
path and the sandy parking area to where his white Toyota bakkie was parked. He
got in and wound the windows down, took the small pair of binoculars out of
the cubbyhole, focused them on the entrance, and waited.
    Seven minutes later he saw Osman emerge, saw that the
coloured man had no other luggage, just the travel case.
    He watched him as he walked to the Avis parking lot, until he
was out of sight.
    Rohn switched the bakkie on and turned it around, so that he
could watch the correct access road.

15
     
    At nine minutes past four in the afternoon Quinn reported to
his boss that Rohn's tailing of Shaheed Latif Osman in Walvis Bay had proceeded
perfectly.
    'Osman
took an Avis car straight to the harbour, where he parked in front of the
offices of Consolidated Fisheries, in the area of the fishing fleet. He went in
to the company's building at 13.35 and only emerged two hours later, at 15.30.
After that he went to the Protea Hotel in Sam Nujoma Avenue, where he booked
in. Rohn also took a room and kept an eye on proceedings there. We are
researching Consolidated Fisheries, and Raj's people will have a report ready
tomorrow morning.'
    At twenty past four Mother Killian summoned Jessica the
Goddess to give her the new task. When Jessica walked back to her work station
ten minutes later, spitting ('A fucking fishing company in a fucking boondocks
harbour town ...'), she broke Milla's intense concentration, so that she
raised her head from the bulky research on street gangs and said to Donald
MacFarland, 'Mac, there's stuff in here that does not reflect well on the
government.' 'So?'
    'So, do I include it?'
    'Of
course. Spy the Beloved Country, even if it hurts.' 'OK.'
    Report: Criminal Gangs of the Cape Flats
    Date: 14 September 2009
    Compiled by: Milla Strachan and Donald MacFarland
     
    Background
    In the last decade of
the Apartheid-era, gang-related activities in the former Cape Province were limited
mostly to the former coloured group areas, especially in the lower
socio-economic neighbourhoods of the Cape Flats.
    The type and extent of
their crimes was relatively limited, mainly as a result of international
isolation, limitation by the Group Areas Act, and an effective,
experienced police force with extensive powers, including detention without
trial and dubious interrogation methods.
    This situation began to
change subtly in the early nineties, when the former SA Police Force was used
more and more for suppression of political unrest. Street gangs could relax,
accelerate their recruitment and systematically expand their activities, which
up till then were small-scale and limited.
    It was in fact the transition to a democratic government in 1994,
and the major changes in the following six years, that gave organised crime the
opportunity to move from a cottage industry to international players. The
following factors apply:
    Post 1994: Opening of borders and international influx
    Dispensing with strict
border control, and South Africa's re-entry to international trade resulted in
an influx of foreign tourists, currency and investment, which included the most
notorious players in trans-national organised crime. It was primarily the
syndicates from Nigeria, Russia, China, Italy and Colombia