A Hong Kong triad has threatened to kill the two most senior politicians in the Western Cape if they do not end a series of investigations that have crippled the organisation's operations.
This weekend the Western Cape province's Premier Ebrahim Rasool and his minister of Safety and Security, Leonard Ramatlakane, said they received letters warning them they would be 'eliminated' unless police investigations into organised crime ceased immediately.
'These threats are taken seriously,' Mr Rasool told the Cape Times newspaper. 'The police and National Intelligence Agency are investigating.
'The original threat came in the form of a meeting held between the triads and a South African gang, the Junior Mafias.
'It was reported to us that they would eliminate me and minister Ramatlakane if we were to continue our campaign.'
A sweeping anti-organised crime campaign in the past few months has targeted drug syndicates and abalone smuggling rings.