Business

One of the fastest-growing crimes in South Africa is worse than you think

Staff Writer

 ·26 Dec 2025

While the latest crime statistics show a broad-based decline in reported crimes across most categories in South Africa, white collar crime has continued to rise, with no sign of slowing down.

Between July and September 2025, commercial collar crime emerged as one of only four community-reported crime categories to increase.

Commercial crime, also known as ‘white collar crime’, refers to illegal activities committed for financial gain within a business or professional context.

The crimes often involve deception, fraud, or misappropriation of assets.

The SAPS recorded 37,248 cases of white-collar crime, a 2.6% increase from the 36,300 cases reported over the same period last year.

While this may seem relatively benign in the wider picture of declining crime numbers, the 36,000 cases reported in 2024 were up 20% from 2023.

To put it in a wider context, cases of white collar crime in 2025 are up over 50% from just five years ago.

However, the reported crimes and data published by the South African Police Service do not tell the whole story, as these kinds of crimes are among the most under-reported in the country.

Following the significant spike in case numbers in 2024, industry experts noted that the true figures are a lot higher as many victims do not report the crime to the police.

This is due to a lack of faith and trust in the police that anything will be done, as well as certain reputational damage that could occur if the crime were exposed.

Commercial crime covers a wide array of criminal activity, from fraud to embezzlement, forgery and money laundering. Bribery and corruption are also commercial crimes.

For businesses, having employees or executives caught stealing or convicted of embezzlement can harm their reputation.

For individuals who are victims of fraud and scams, there is often a level of embarrassment that also discourages them from reporting the crime.

According to Stats SA’s Victims of Crime Survey, published in August, only 35% of fraud victims actually report the crime—down from around 42% a few years ago.

Taking industry insights and victim surveys into account, white collar crimes are not only growing, but are likely far more prevalent than the data shows.

Off the grey list

The rise of commercial crimes in South Africa is notable in the context of the country being removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in October.

One of the key reasons South Africa was put on the list in the first place was due to the lack of financial controls, gaps in regulation, and a lack of successful prosecutions when taking on commercial crimes.

The FATF’s focus is on money laundering and terrorism financing, and South Africa fell short of many standards set internationally for combating these crimes.

South Africa was put on the grey list in February 2023 and removed in October 2025, making it a relatively short stint.

Over the past three years, the government and lawmakers have worked to strengthen the regulatory frameworks that were often exploited by commercial criminals.

However, prosecutions were and remain the weakest aspect of the reforms.

According to Business Leadership South Africa CEO, Busi Mavuso, this is not something the business community has overlooked.

Despite piles of evidence of corruption and comprehensive findings from commissions, the South African National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has a frustratingly long list of failed prosecutions, she noted.

South Africa faces a critical decision as the current National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Shamila Batohi, is retiring in 2026, and her successor needs to be selected.

Mavuso said that the decision on who takes up the seat next will affect South Africa’s business environment for the next decade.

If businesses and victims of fraud do not have faith that perpetrators and commercial criminals will face consequences for their activities, under-reporting is likely to continue, and cases are likely to keep piling up.