South Africa is the second most criminal country on the continent

Given the prevalence of mafia-style groups, criminal networks, and the state-embedded actors that enable this in South Africa, it has been given the second-highest criminality score in Africa.

This is according to the 2025 Enact Africa Organised Crime Index, which explores the dynamics of criminality and resilience on the continent and is compiled by the Institute for Security Studies, Interpol, and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.

The report assigned South Africa a criminality score of 7.43, a 0.25-point increase from 2024.

Only the Democratic Republic of Congo received a higher score at 7.47.

These scores are based on the pervasiveness of criminal markets and the influence that criminal actors hold in the country.

The report highlights five types of criminal actors, which are seen as the most dominant drivers of criminality in Africa.

South Africa received a score of eight for mafia-style groups, or organised criminal gangs such as construction mafias, criminal networks, and state-embedded actors.

The report says that the rapid industrial development and urbanisation that followed World War II in South Africa saw a rise in criminality in major cities, leading to the proliferation of street gangs.

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

By the late 20th century, organised criminal gangs formed and began forming ties with foreign criminal networks left unchecked by the apartheid government.

“Today, organised criminal gangs wield severe influence in South Africa’s organised crime landscape and have a negative impact on social and state structures.”

The other two types of actors that are seen to influence criminality include foreign actors and private sector actors. South Africa received scores of 7.5 and 7, respectively.

Criminal markets

South Africa received a 7.17 rating for its criminal markets, ranking it the third-worst on the continent behind Kenya (7.27) and Nigeria (7.33).

The country’s most prevalent criminal markets are the synthetic drug trade (1st in Africa) and extortion and protection racketeering (3rd).

According to the report, the synthetic drug market has come to dominate the South African drug landscape, especially that of methamphetamine, referred to as ‘tik’.

The local production of this drug is concentrated in the Western Cape, using smuggled precursors such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.

However, this is often supplemented by “high-purity meth” smuggled into the country from Southeast Asia and West Africa.

“The involvement of transnational actors, including those from West Africa and Australia, underscores the globalised nature of a market in which South Africa is a central player,” the report argues.

It has also been found that drug cartels from countries such as Mexico have sent foreign nationals to operate meth labs in South Africa.

In July 2025, the South African Police Service arrested two Mexican nationals and two South Africans following a raid on a drug manufacturing facility in Groblersdal in Limpopo.

They found roughly one tonne of crystal meth with a street value of R2 billion, as well as chemicals such as acetone.

Extortion and protection racketeering have been identified as one of the fastest-growing forms of organised crime in South Africa, expanding to rural regions.

It affects a wide range of sectors, including construction, mining, transport, retail, and public services such as water and waste management.

“It has also become more entrenched and violent, often involving heavily armed groups and ties to other crimes such as drug trafficking, kidnappings, cybercrime, and assassinations,” the report said.

“These groups operate in mafia-like structures and have diversified income sources, forming sub-gangs and building connections with public officials and private sector individuals.”

Construction mafias have become notorious in the country for extorting construction companies, threatening to damage their sites or inflict harm if they are not paid a percentage of the contract value.

Other common forms of this type of extortion include water tanker mafias that sabotage water infrastructure to secure lucrative contracts for supplying communities with water using tankers.