South Africa has worse criminality than African war zones – Report

The Africa Organised Crime Index 2025 revealed that criminality in South Africa is worse than in war zones like Sudan, Somalia, Mali, and Niger.

The index is published by the European Union-funded ENACT programme and run by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

Other parties involved in the project are Interpol and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC).

Mark Shaw, Executive Director of GI-TOC, said their rich pool of information gives them an unprecedented overview of illicit economies across the continent.

Criminal markets show considerable diversity across the continent. East Africa stands out for high human trafficking, arms trafficking and human smuggling.

North Africa leads globally in the cannabis trade, which remains illegal in many countries, and ranks second for financial crimes.

Non-renewable resource crimes dominate Central Africa, the cocaine trade dominates West Africa, and the wildlife trade is most prevalent in Southern Africa.

State-linked actors drive organised crime in nearly half of African nations, with influence rated ‘severe’ in 48% of countries.

Foreign criminal groups pose an increasingly significant threat across the continent and particularly in West Africa.

The 2025 Africa Organised Crime Index revealed that organised crime has surged across Africa since 2019, while efforts to combat it have weakened.

Almost all countries in Africa are characterised as having low resilience to organised crime, making them vulnerable to criminality.

23 countries are affected by the particularly devastating combination of high criminality and low resilience.

The most pervasive criminal markets are financial crimes, human trafficking, non-renewable resource crimes, the trade in counterfeit goods and arms trafficking.

Africa’s digital boom has also fueled a surge in cybercrime, particularly online financial fraud and ransomware, which is now on the rise in four of the continent’s five regions.

Democratic countries are more resilient in their response, whilst authoritarian states tend to either embrace organised crime or suppress it with violent crackdowns.

South Africa has a serious crime problem

The report explained that rapid industrial development and urbanisation created an environment in which urban criminality began to increase in South African cities.

The increase in criminality was observed in all major cities, including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, and Durban.

As criminality grew, loosely structured street gangs proliferated. These were the forerunners of the more defined organised criminal groups that are present today.

These gangs were involved in armed robbery, protection rackets, hijackings, and the smuggling of cannabis and other contraband.

By the 1980s, more hardened, organised criminal gangs had formed, spurred on by social, economic and political dynamics within South Africa.

Today, organised criminal gangs, which the Index categorises as mafia-style groups, wield severe influence in South Africa’s organised crime landscape.

The increase in organised crime in South Africa has a severe negative impact on social and state structures.

The country is also a hotspot for the heroin trade. Northern KwaZulu-Natal’s proximity to Mozambique facilitates cross-border smuggling of heroin.

The report noted that the Gauteng region, which encompasses Johannesburg, Pretoria, and surrounding towns, serves as a central distribution hub.

In Cape Town, South Africa, heavily armed criminal groups involved in drugs and extortion wield considerable influence over neighbourhoods.

Their turf wars have resulted in chronic levels of bloodshed, resembling low-intensity armed conflict.

South Africa ranks second in criminality scores

The Africa Organised Crime Index 2025 revealed that South Africa ranked second in criminality in Africa.

Crime in the country was worse than in many war zones in Africa, including Sudan, Somalia, Mali, Niger, and the Central African Republic.