By Louise Flanagan
Willie Hofmeyr intends to make his first billion this year at the expense of criminals.
In the 10 years since the Asset Forfeiture Unit - which Hofmeyr heads - was set up, the unit has won forfeiture of assets valued at more than R950-million in about 1 400 cases.
"We hope to reach the billion-rand mark this year," said Hofmeyr at a briefing in Benoni on Tuesday. Hofmeyr is also the deputy national director of the National Prosecuting Authority, which runs the unit.
He said criminals regarded crime as a business, looking for low risks and high returns.
The unit aimed to cut the criminals' "gross domestic product" - and there was a lot of it to target.
"My best guesstimate is we are looking at a figure of R80- to R100 billion as the criminal GDP. Obviously it's a figure we'd like to reduce," he said.
Criminal assets are first frozen in terms of a court order, to make sure they don't disappear while the unit confirms that they are proceeds of crime, then finally seized and forfeited to the state through a further court order. Seizures follow criminal convictions or civil action.
Cars, boats, property and cash used in crime or the proceeds of crime have been forfeited.
Even a platinum refinery in the UK was seized during an investigation into an international syndicate smuggling precious metals.
Most of the money goes into funding law-enforcement units - although Hofmeyr said his unit took very little of it - some to victims, where they can be identified, and some to organisations that help victims.
More than R400m of the assets seized since 1999 were repaid to victims and another R230m went into the Criminal Assets Recovery Account.
The account had about R130-140m in it now, said Hofmeyr.
It took five years for the unit to break even, but by last year it was seizing nearly five times as much as it cost to run the unit. The staff has grown from three to 110.
Last year - its most successful - it won forfeiture of assets worth R272m, said Hofmeyr.
This took more than 550 freezing and forfeiture court orders, and resulted in forfeitures worth more than double the year before.
In 2008 the unit cost R56m to run, and this year its budget is R69m.
In 2008 R29m went to victims and R66m was deposited in the Criminal Assets Recovery Account.
Most of the seized assets are turned into cash for the account, but some are kept to use - trawlers and a sophisticated rubber duck seized from poachers were handed over to Marine and Coastal Management for law enforcement, and two houses used by drug dealers in Atlantis were given to the Western Cape government for use by NGOs that help abused women.
Hofmeyr and National Director of Public Prosecutions advocate Mokotedi Mpshe said the unit would continue to work closely with the Hawks, the successor to the Scorpions unit launched on Monday.
Mpshe said the Asset Forfeiture Unit was a "well-performing unit", with a case success rate of more than 85 percent. Mpshe said the Scorpions had been one of the key feeders into the unit, and with the Hawks "that linkage will not stop".
Hofmeyr said the field of asset forfeiture was relatively new internationally, and SA had won recognition from other countries for its work.
The unit aimed to bring test cases to court "to develop a sound jurisprudence that will simplify forfeiture litigation", and to take on a lot of cases as soon as possible, he said.
Hofmeyr has been with the unit since it started and, as a parliamentarian before that, helped draft the legislation that governs the unit.
Over the years he learnt that forfeiture needed specialised units, but that partnerships with other law-enforcement agencies were vital.
He said "significant resources" were needed for the initial, carefully selected test cases as it was crucial to win these, and criminals could often afford the best lawyers.
The unit has clarified the law through 243 court judgments, including six in the Constitutional Court.
One area the unit had so far lost in was seizure of vehicles driven by drunk drivers and speedsters, he said. "We haven't quite persuaded the courts," he said.
Such units must also build legal and investigative capacity in forfeiture.
"Our experience is that training is a vital component, and it has to be intensive and ongoing," said Hofmeyr.