ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Charles Goredema is a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Security Studies in Cape Town where he specialises in research into money laundering, organised crime and corruption in southern Africa . He holds qualifications in law from the Universities of Zimbabwe and London and practiced law as a prosecutor in the Justice Ministry in Zimbabwe in 1983 before embarking on an academic career in 1987. He joined the Institute in August 2000 after teaching criminal justice law at the Universities of Zimbabwe, Cape Town and the Western Cape . He has published extensively in the spheres of criminal justice and human rights law.

Gideon Nkala is an investigative journalist who writes for the weekly paper, MMEGI, published in Gaborone , Botswana . He is a former teacher and is currently a Masters student in Library and Information Studies at the University of Botswana . After working as a freelance journalist he became a reporter for Botswana 's main weekly newspaper. In 2000 he was nominated as the environmental journalist of the year and was the Media Institute of Southern Africa Botswana journalist of the year.

Jenni Irish is the co-director of Injobo Nebandla, a firm of research consultants based in Durban , South Africa . She has undertaken research into, among others, the future regulation of the private security industry, the extent and nature of fraudulent hijackings, community attitudes to guns and violence in KwaMashu, Durban , and organised crime in South Africa . She has also been the Regional Co-ordinator of the KwaZulu-Natal Human Rights Committee (HRC) and is presently the Vice Chairperson of the statutory council established for the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority and a member of the Durban Safer City Research Action Group.

Kevin Qhobosheane is the co-director of Injobo Nebandla with Jenni Irish. He served in the ANC in different leadership capacities, including as a member of the ANC Youth League National Executive Committee and as National Secretary for Information and Propaganda in the National Youth Secretariat. He also served in various command capacities in Mkhonto we Sizwe, both inside and outside South Africa , and was integrated into the SAPS after 1994 where he was a Senior Superintendent in the Central Intelligence Service. He was Deputy Provincial Head of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Information and Security and between 1999 and 2001 he worked as an advisor to the Deputy Minister of Defence.