I agree. People tend to refer to examples - in this article, Ivo refers to seven American (why no South African?) to support his argument of RICO excesses - to confirm their bias. 
As I understand RICO - if I'm not mistaken, its ambit is wide (than SA's?) because it doesn't only deal with asset seizure but the arrest and indictment of individuals in a criminal conspiracy - and POCA, seized assets may be returned if the individual is proved innocent, as a Cape Town's gang lord's were recently (I can't find the story, though). The fact assets are not being returned is probably due to administrative inertia and inaction within the justice system, the same kind of problem that has people awaiting trial, esp in SA, for unacceptably long times. Of course, Ivo doesn't mention this context because it doesn't advance his argument. 
But this is what we expect: he doesn't really give both sides. He often has a point, but always his argument suffers for lack of balance.