https://correctiv.org/en/investigations/mafia-africa/articles/2015/04/16/africa-cosa-nostra/

Africa: is Cosa Nostra

An insight into Vito Roberto Palazzolo

On 24 December 1986, using a 36 hours Christmas pass, Palazzolo’s escaped to South Africa.

As a banker in Germany and Switzerland he conducted much business with South Africans looking to sidestep international sanctions by using the underworld to move money.  For much of Palazzolo's life on the run, South Africa was a haven.

An Italian base in South Africa

By the time Palazzolo arrived in South Africa in the winter of 1986, the country had already provided refuge to two important figures in his life: his brother, Pietro Efisio, and the Sicilian coffee manufacturer, Salvatore Morettino, head of Eurafrica Imports and Exports (Pty) Ltd. 

In 1995, the Servizio Centrale Operativo (S.C.O) of the Italian Police grew concerned that the Morettino group was involved in money laundering.

South African Police shared this concern, believing that 8 million rand per month was being funnelled through the companies, by receiving foreign exchange from Italy, the USA, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Mozambique, country where he had “suspicious” timber operations. The South African police discovered in 1989 that Morettino’s Eurafrica Imports and Exports had received R 650.000 from one of the banks of Pizza Connection, the Union Bank of Switzerland.

According to joint Italian and South African police investigations, in 1996 Morettino was responsible for hiding the mafia fugitive Mariano Tullio Troia, a brutal assassin for the Cosa Nostra. Attempts to arrest Troia in South Africa failed, due corruption in the local police force. Troia left South Africa unmolested, and was eventually arrested in Palermo two years later. 

Morettino was never convicted on mafia allegations. Prosecutors in Palermo dismissed the charges against him. He could not be reached for comment.

The Italian S.C.O also believed there was a handful of Italians involved in the Cosa Nostra chapter of Cape Town, headed by Palazzolo.  

Palazzolo was involved in some of the top nightclubs in Cape Town, including the Hemingway Club, and another company called A Table at Colin’s, established in 1994.

The latter connects an array of individuals, including Palazzolo’s two sons and Serbian criminal Goran Bojovic, wanted by Interpol for a "series of murders in the mid 90s," five of which were conducted from Cape Town - where authorities believe he is still hiding.

Palazzolo’s sons, and the Kolbatschenko family in general, could not be reached for comment.

Befriending The Establishment

The Italian connection to Palazzolo in South Africa was just a base to start from, surely not the lever to his growth. This role that was covered by some crucial South African figures. Palazzolo wasn’t just a fugitive. He knew the secrets to banking, using the offshore, and trading precious stones. He knew how to play the queen on the chessboard, while slowing growing into a king, and at the same fostering larger reigns, those of South African friends. 

Palazzolo's first sanctuary was Ciskei, a small independent state in the Eastern Cape, later annexed by South Africa in 1994. Palazzolo arrived when the country was still in the grip of Apartheid, and quickly befriended members the white ruling class and the reigning National Party. 

According to the Italian verdict, Peet De Pontes, a National Party MP, assisted Palazzolo in obtaining a residence permit. De Pontes also introduced Palazzolo to the long-serving Foreign Affairs Minister, Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha. With Botha it was an immediate meeting of minds. 

In 1995, Botha allegedly helped Palazzolo obtain South African citizenship, despite the fugitive's appearance on Interpol’s most-wanted list. Botha would later deny this.  

By 1995, Palazzolo was going by the name Robert Von Palace Kolbatschenko. He married his second wife, Israeli/South African citizen, Tirtza Grunfeld, daughter of Eugene Grunfeld, an important diamond dealer with reported links to the Mossad.