By Mapaballo Borotho
- Violent crimes, including murder and rape, decreased in the third quarter of 2025/26.
- Police say the figures remain unacceptably high despite the downward trend.
- Firearms continue to be the leading weapon used in murders and organised crime.
Violent or contact crimes including rape, murder, robberies and property-related crimes like theft and burglary decreased between 01 October and 31 December 2025.
The 2025/26 third quarter crime statistics were announced by the Acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia, on Friday afternoon, 20 February 2026 in Pretoria.
Cachalia says although such crimes continue to see a decrease, they remain at unacceptably high levels.
“After more than a decade of annual increases, murder, our most accurate crime statistic, started decreasing in the first quarter of 2023-24. This trend has continued throughout this year, with this quarter showing an 8,7% decrease or 602 fewer lives lost.
This means that over the past two years, the number of murders for the quarter 3 period (1 October to 31 December) has dropped by 17,6% or 1 359 fewer murders,” said Cachalia.
The minister attributed the decrease in contact or violent crimes to enhanced policing operations in the country.
“The crime situation also varies substantially across the country. Remember that these are statistical patterns. While most communities have recorded a decrease in violent and property crimes, there are still too many communities that have recorded increases,” he added.
Five provinces, namely Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Free State and North West, saw a decrease in such crimes, whereas slight increases were recorded in Limpopo and the Northern Cape.
The Western Cape and the Eastern Cape recorded smaller decreases in violent crimes, as both provinces continue to experience killings related to worrisomely high gang violence.
Meanwhile, firearms remain the single largest weapon contributing to murder, robberies and organised crime in South Africa.
Cachalia assured that additional measures to address the scourge of illegal guns in the country have been implemented.
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