| Summary: | From a survey of media reports and other documentary sources, illicit drug
trafficking and trade seems to be a prevalent problem in South Africa today. Drugs
are being shipped undetected in containers, which poses a significant threat to
maritime security. The drug trade is also having a negative impact upon one of South
Africa's valuable resources, abalone. It appears that there is a substantial nexus
between the poaching of abalone and the illicit drug trade in South Africa. Abalone is
considered to be a delicacy in the East and research shows that a substantial amount
of drugs in South Africa has originated from the illicit trade of abalone.
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This dissertation will examine illicit drug trafficking and trade with particular reference
to the maritime industry which facilitates this illicit trafficking and trade through
ineffective security measures governing containerisation; and also through the abalone
trade. A survey of media reports, articles, reviews, Institute for Security Studies papers,
books and the World Drug Report 2012 set the scene of illicit drug trafficking and trade
in South Africa as being prevalent and damaging to the country's security measures.
A review of South Africa's domestic legislation and the international conventions to
which it is party is necessary to determine whether the law governing illicit drug
trafficking and trade is adequate to address the issues highlighted above. The focus of
this dissertation will then shift to wards the issues surrounding implementation and
enforcement of these laws.
The enforcement and implementation of the law seems tainted by corruption, lack of
skills and morale and inexperience and therefore these issues need to be addressed in
order to fully combat illicit drug trafficking and trade in South Africa's maritime
industry. === Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.
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