PAGAD: Intelligence War In South Africa's New Democracy | David Africa | Underworlds with Mark Shaw

In the early years of South Africa's democracy, a small unit of police intelligence officers was fighting a war most people didn't know was happening — and that their own government didn't want to believe was real.Mark Shaw speaks with David Africa, former ANC underground operative turned police intelligence officer, about his book Lives on the Line — an unusually candid account of the covert campaign against PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs), a front for the militant Islamist organisation Qibla that carried out hundreds of bombings and at least 150 killings in Cape Town in the late 1990s.They also discuss what happened to the generation of capable officers who ran that operation — and the challenges faced by South Africa's crime intelligence apparatus today.Lives on the Line is available now.Subscribe for new episodes of Underworlds with Mark Shaw, where GI-TOC's Director of Research explores the global underworld of organised crime with the authors, analysts, and insiders who know it best.🌐 GI-TOC: globalinitiative.netChapters:0:00 Introduction — David Africa & Lives on the Line2:00 From ANC underground to police intelligence6:00 What was PAGAD?12:00 Why the threat was ignored18:00 The ideology behind PAGAD's campaign22:18 Building the intelligence response29:51 Inside the operations32:50 South Africa's policing crisis today39:22 Closing reflections