South Africa ranks 7th globally for organised crime, warns latest index

South Africa has once again been ranked 7th in the world for organised crime behind countries such as Mexico, Colombia and the DRC.

Last week, the 4th edition of the Africa Organised Crime Index 2025, which provides detailed longitudinal and trend analysis of crime and resilience on the continent, placed Nigeria just above South Africa.

The index also revealed that, over the past decade, organised crime markets in the continent have grown and become consolidated, with the dynamics between criminal actors becoming fluid, while in contrast, resilience to organised crime has consistently remained lower than the criminality average.

The 4th edition of the Africa Organised Crime Index showcases these patterns, drawing on more than eight years of data. The index is unique in its assessment of 15 criminal markets, five types of criminal actors and 12 resilience indicators for all 54 countries in Africa.

The 4th edition of the Africa Organised Crime Index was launched in a hybrid format last week. It was co-hosted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), and INTERPOL, with startling revelations about the deep-seated criminal networks on the continent.

It comes at a time, South Africa is probing political interference in the work of the police by the Madlanga Commission and the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee.

The index was introduced in 2021 to assess levels of organised crime and countries’ ability to address the criminal threats they faced. The report offers data on criminality and resilience patterns from all 193 United Nations member states.

According to Rumbi Matamba from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, the most dominant forms of transnational crimes in the country are synthetic drug trafficking, cybercrime and counterfeiting, with reports that criminal networks are becoming more global and tech-savvy, while cooperation among countries is weakening.

Mmushi cites weaknesses in law enforcement, including understaffed units and insufficient cybercrime capabilities, as key factors in the rise of organised crime.

“We are seeing a shift in the traditional drug market, and a surge in non-violent crimes, and they are now adapting and forming alliances with a global footprint instead. Criminal networks are becoming more global and tech-savvy, while cooperation among countries is weakening,” she said.

In 2023, the same index, which placed South Africa, came in seventh out of 193 countries surveyed in terms of organised crime, scoring 7.18 out of a possible 10, a 0.58 increase on the 2021 outcome.

The country ranked first among 13 Southern African states, and third on the continent, in terms of criminality, with its resilience — its ability to deal with organised crime — also decreasing slightly over the same period.

The index is published every two years by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, a Geneva-based civil society initiative aimed at raising awareness of — and combating — organised crime across continents.