South Africa has one crime that is consistently getting worse

Commercial crime is the only crime category defying national downward trends, having continuously increased over the past five years. This digital and greed-driven crisis is draining the country’s wealth.

The latest South African Police Service crime statistics confirm a disturbing trend: Commercial crime continues its unrelenting five-year upward streak.

While police report significant drops in violent crimes like murder and aggravated robbery, offences driven by corporate deceit and digital fraud are showing stubborn increases. This persistent escalation makes Commercial crime a category of critical concern spanning half a decade.

For the period covering the first quarter (April to June) of 2025, a total of 36,011 commercial crime incidents were recorded, reflecting an increase of 1.5% from the preceding year. This long-term trend highlights the deepening threat posed by economic criminality.

Commercial Crime: South Africa threat is moving online

The increase signals a critical shift in criminal focus, as much of this activity is now taking place online. This category often involves individuals who set up criminal structures motivated by greed and a lust for power and wealth.

These perpetrators often wear “fancy suits and designer clothes”, posing as legitimate business people while infiltrating procurement systems and government departments to steal public funds, said acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia on Friday, 28 November 2025.

The severe consequences of these high-level thefts, such as the large-scale corruption seen in the Gauteng Health Department, often do not appear in the street-level statistics, but they are noted to “bleed our country dry”, Cachalia added.