While President Nelson Mandela has blamed "counter-revolutionaries" for instigating crime in a conspiracy to destabilise post-apartheid South Africa, there is growing evidence that former members of the disbanded African National Congress army, Umkhonto we Sizwe or MK, are implicated in a series of daring armed robberies.
Several of these robberies have been carried out in broad daylight on South Africa's busiest highways, thereby causing people to dismiss government claims that it is winning the war against crime.
The ANC acknowledges the "involvement of a tiny minority of former members of MK" in the robberies, the admission having been made after the arrest of former MK combatants on suspicion of participating in, if not organising, the robberies. The hallmark of these has been the military precision with which they are executed.
The scale and intensity of the problem are reflected in figures collated by the Council of South African Banks:
In the first 10 months of last year, R110 million (£16.25 million) was stolen from banks and R45 million from SBV, a security firm, jointly owned by South Africa's four biggest banks, specialising in the transport of cash.
Over the same period another R1.7 million was stolen in 400 robberies and 52 attacks on automatic teller machines or autobanks.
These figures do not take account of a particularly spectacular and bloody robbery in December last year, when R10 million was seized and six security guards killed in a co-ordinated attack on a SBV vehicle on a highway northeast of Pretoria.
According to news reports at least 11 security guards were killed during cash-in-transit robberies last year.
Four former MK men have been arrested in connection with two of the biggest robberies in the past six months: an audacious raid on SBV headquarters in Pretoria in October last year, in which the robbers escaped with R12.9 million, and the R10 million SBV robbery last December.
One of the arrested men, Hendrick Maloma, is a serving police officer, having joined the police service after being trained as a guerrilla in Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Swaziland.
The MK factor in these robberies has been highlighted by an unexpected guest at a recent party given by the Deputy Minister, Mr Peter Mokaba, to celebrate his 40th birthday: Colin Chauke, a former MK man who was arrested in connection with last October's robbery at the headquarters of SBV but who later escaped.
Chauke's presence at the party - he left before police could arrest him - led to calls by opposition parties for an independent inquiry into the involvement of MK men in the robberies and for the ANC to dissociate itself from the dissident former guerrillas.
Democratic Party leader, Mr Tony Leon, has accused the ANC of "consorting with thieves and hijackers" and cited Chauke's presence at the party - undenied by Mr Mokaba - as evidence of the ANC's inability to tackle the problem of widespread and rampant crime, of which the robberies are a conspicuous element.
The Afrikaans newspaper Rapport asserts that the robbers' commanders are former members of a special detachment of MK combatants who were sent to Cuba before the 1994 election for training in how to rob banks to fill ANC election coffers.
Faced with a chorus of criticism over Chauke's presence at his party, Mr Mokaba has proclaimed his innocence, insisting that he had never even met Chauke and would not have recognised him among the hundreds of people who attended his "open door" party.
In a tough-worded response the Safety and Security Minister, Mr Sydney Mufamadi, has sent an unequivocal message to MK members involved in organised crime. "They have outlived their usefulness to the people and the country," he says.
The ANC's acknowledgement that dissident MK members may have degenerated into bandits plying their military skills for profit comes in the wake of repeated statements by Mr Mandela and his deputy, Mr Thabo Mbeki, blaming "counter-revolutionaries" for the high rate of crime.
In partial substantiation of their charges, made most recently at the ANC's national conference last December, they cite the theft of computers and vehicles from the new headquarters in Pretoria of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
So far, however, the evidence points to a disgruntled MK man, Donovan Nel, who has appeared in court on charges of extortion. He is alleged to have sent an anonymous letter to NIA director-general, Mr Sizakhele Sigxashe, threatening to blow up the headquarters during its official opening unless he was paid R10 million.
If "a tiny minority" of MK men have become bandits with no cause beyond self-enrichment, the ANC cannot escape blame entirely. Ever since the organisation was unbanned in 1990, it has been confronted with disgruntled MK combatants who believe their grievances have not been addressed.
Over the years there have been several public demonstrations of anger by MK, including a siege of the ANC headquarters in Durban, a march on Mr Mandela's residence in Pretoria and an attack on a vehicle carrying one of their former commanders, Gen Siphwe Nyanda, after he became the second highest-ranking officer in the new post-apartheid army.
The integration of MK fighters into the national defence force has not been without its problems. Of the 11,850 MK combatants who joined, 1,410 have been lost through "attrition". Some may have become desperados and joined South Africa's post-apartheid highwaymen.