The Global Institute of Transnational Organized Crime recently released its second iteration of the Organized Crime Index, a scale demonstrating the presence of organised crime and resilience to the phenomenon across all UN member states. The Index paints a bleak, but not irreversible picture of the penetration of organised crime in South Africa, with the country moving to the 7th worst-ranked in the world, from 19th in 2021.

To provide reliable data for the Organized Crime Index, the Global Institute of Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) makes use of a model that aims to measure criminal activity through its scope, scale, value and impact.

Each country is provided two metrics; a Criminality score based on the prevalence and reach of criminal markets and the structure and influence of criminal actors, and a Resilience score, based upon the capacity and efficacy of a country's ability to respond to organised crime.

Both of these are ranked out of 10, and this year, South Africa scored a high 7.18 for Criminality and a reduced 5.63 in Resilience.

Since the last Organized Crime Index release in 2021, South Africa has increased in Criminality and declined in Resilience, according to the GI-TOC, placing us squarely between Nigeria and Iraq.

Of note, however, is that our rate of decline is faster than both of these countries. In the context of the African continent itself - the southern African region is ranked the best in terms of the Index - South Africa is noted in the report as a salient outlier.

"What sets South Africa apart from most countries in Africa was that yes, South Africa...