South Africa has another podium performance on a table where it is better to be near the bottom than the top.

The recently published Africa Organised Crime Index 2023 – compiled by the Enhancing Africa’s Response to Transnational Organised Crime (Enact) project – ranks South Africa third, with only Nigeria and Democratic Republic of the Congo topping the continental charts when it comes to the scourge of organised crime.

“Over the past five years, criminality across Africa has steadily increased and shows no sign of slowing down. Human trafficking remains a serious challenge; the cocaine markets have spiked in East, West and Southern Africa; and financial crimes are endemic in many regions,” the report says.

This is the third edition of the index, which has been published every two years since 2019. The rankings are based on a scale of zero to 10, and South Africa’s 2023 overall “criminality score” is 7.18, a rise of 0.56 percentage points since 2021. (See table).

The Enact project is implemented by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in partnership with Interpol and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.

Fifteen illicit activities are ranked with “criminal market scores”. These include human trafficking, human smuggling, arms trafficking, extortion and protection racketeering, and financial crime.

South Africa scores 8 on the extortion and arms trafficking fronts and 8.5 in the synthetic drug trade category. For fauna crimes – which would include rhino poaching and the linked trade in horn – South Africa scores an 8. Plant poachers are not as much of a concern: South Africa only gets 5 for flora crimes.

Wildlife trafficking

“Fauna crimes were the most prevalent criminal market in southern Africa, which is one of the largest sources of live animals and animal parts in the world and an extremely profitable market. The region is home to large populations of animal species, from rhinos and lions to elephants and pangolins, which are at risk due to the persistent threat of wildlife trafficking,” the report says.

“Organised crime syndicates, mainly from countries in southeastern Asia, often work with their local counterparts and corrupt officials to establish highly organised routes for trafficking wildlife products to southeastern Asia… 

“Despite conservation efforts and the arrests of major kingpins in some countries, the poaching of wildlife, especially elephants, rhinos and pangolins (in Zambia, Malawi and South Africa), continued unabated.”

Fauna crime is not just a conservation or animal welfare concern, as such networks are linked to other organised criminal activities.

Concerning southern Africa, the report says: “… there are instances in the region of wildlife trafficking overlapping with drug trafficking or extortion practices at various stages of the supply chain. These networks are supported by corrupt public officials who protect organised criminal groups from law enforcement and facilitate the movement of illicit goods across borders.”

‘State-embedded actors’

It adds: “This implies that state-embedded actors, at all levels, are essential for these criminal activities to thrive and remain an obstacle to implementing an effective anti-organised crime strategy in many countries in the region.”

South Africa also gets an 8 ranking for “non-renewable resource crimes”, which shows the rise of the zama zamas.

“This criminal market is linked predominantly to the mining and trading of gold. However, the illegal extraction of diamonds and precious gems was also pervasive in the region, with detrimental effects on both the environment and human safety,” the report says.

Of course, financial crimes flourish in such an environment. South Africa gets a hefty 7.5 in that category – the country has been grey-listed by the Financial Action Task Force for a reason. And financial crimes are an economic menace across southern Africa.

“Financial crimes (5.54) represented the second highest scoring criminal market in southern Africa. Embezzlement, fraud and tax evasion are ubiquitous, with no country scoring less than 4.5. In some cases, massive illicit financial flows scandals involving high-profile individuals have hindered economic development, which has contributed to widespread poverty and inequality,” the report says.

Indeed, South Africa’s other podium performances – topping the global charts for unemployment and inequality – are explained in part by rampant crime, which the World Bank has estimated costs the country the equivalent of about 10% of its GDP annually.

SA shows resilience

Still, South Africa is at least more “resilient” than its neighbours when it comes to the challenge of organised crime. Civil society is robust and engaged, the judiciary remains independent, the financial sector is sophisticated and well-regulated, and the state – while clearly failing – has not collapsed into a heap.

“South Africa continued to be the most resilient country in the region, scoring 5.63, which is well above the regional average. The country displayed robust ‘national policies and laws’, strong ‘economic regulatory capacity’ and a diverse range of ‘non-state actors’. And yet, paradoxically, it had the highest levels of criminality in the region,” the report notes.

So at least the situation, though extremely worrying, is not hopeless. DM