South Africa: Criminal Law

A South African High Court has ruled on the lawfulness of account freezing by banks based on fraud suspicions and affirmed SARS's authority to issue third-party notices under section 179 of the Tax Administration Act. The case arose after a close corporation fraudulently claimed a VAT refund of R3.28 million, transferred R900,000 to an individual's account, prompting the bank to freeze the account and SARS to pursue recovery through a third-party notice.

South Africa's whistleblower protection framework is undergoing significant reform through the proposed Protected Disclosures Bill, 2026, which aims to address critical gaps exposed by high-profile assassinations and the Zondo Commission findings. The new legislation promises expanded protections, criminal sanctions for retaliation, and financial rewards for whistleblowers, but will the reforms be sufficient to encourage individuals to come forward in a climate where speaking up can cost lives?

Major corruption schemes are rarely uncovered through a single piece of evidence, but rather through the accumulation of small, interconnected facts that reveal larger networks of misconduct. This article examines the strategic challenge organisations face when deciding whether to take immediate disciplinary action against an implicated employee or continue monitoring to expose the full extent of a corruption network. It explores how relationship mapping and coordinated investigation approaches can help org

Banks are rapidly deploying artificial intelligence across critical functions like credit decisioning, fraud detection, and customer engagement, but beneath the efficiency gains lies a growing risk: AI debt.

South Africa's removal from the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") grey list in October 2025 represented an important milestone in the country's ongoing efforts to strengthen its anti money laundering...

The Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 ("POCA") was enacted to tackle organised crime and cases of serious wrongdoing by individuals.