The number of people being convicted of commercial crimes has dropped significantly in the past two decades, while the number of reported crimes has increased.

The National Prosecuting Authority has a dedicated unit – the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit (SCCU) – to prosecute fraud, corruption and money laundering.

In addition to the prosecuting unit, South Africa also has Specialised Commercial Crime Courts. Most of the SCCU’s cases are prosecuted in these courts.

Both the unit and the courts are securing fewer convictions than before, despite more courts being opened and more magistrates and prosecutors being appointed.

By 2018, ten specialised courts were delivering only about 76 convictions per court annually. By 2023, there were 22 specialised courts delivering only 15 convictions each per year.

A main bottleneck appears to be on the investigation side. In 2023/24, more than 128,000 commercial crime cases were reported to police. Only 15,000 arrests were made.

Read the full GroundUp article here.