As police top brass continue to battle each other in the political and legal arenas, figures released by Stats SA on Tuesday show crime is increasingly growing out of control.
The country continues to be plagued by violent crime, with about 1.5-million incidents of housebreaking in 2024/25.
Murders were reported by nearly 60,000 households, and in most assaults and home robberies, weapons such as guns, knives, metal bars, clubs and pangas were used.
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke, presenting the victims of crime report of the Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey in Pretoria on Tuesday, said during the past five years about 2.6-million households experienced a housebreaking or burglary.
The report comes as police top brass are fighting it out in courts over the disbanding of an elite task team set up to investigate political killings in KwaZulu-Natal.
The disbandment of the team, under a directive of former police minister Senzo Mchunu on December 31, is at the heart of the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of criminal infiltration in the security cluster.
In the past five years, about 268,000 households experienced assault, while about 514,000 households experienced home robbery
The commission, chaired by retired justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, announced on Tuesday it would no longer start on September 1 as planned due to issues with procurement of vital infrastructure by the department of justice and constitutional development.
The delay is likely to affect the commission’s ability to deliver its first report within three months, as ordered by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In May, Mchunu said between January and March police registered 5,727 murders, with Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and Eastern Cape contributing most murders nationally. Mchunu said 178,757 suspects were arrested in the quarter.
He said 4,023 cases of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition were registered, a 2.7% increase compared with the same period last year. Police also seized 1,641 illegal firearms and 24,288 rounds of ammunition.
* No reporting rate was provided for assault in the GPSJS 2024/25 release.
A new national policing policy was approved by cabinet on May 15, Mchunu said at the time.
This was aimed at strengthening police service delivery to communities by ensuring professionalism and efficiencies in policing and is supported by a crime prevention strategy that seeks to address violence at its root causes.
However, the figures seem to keep rising.
On Tuesday Maluleke said during 2020/21, 1.9-million burglaries were recorded, with the number rising to 2.2-million in 2021/22, 2.3-million (2022/23) and 2.6-million in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
Maluleke said about 216,000 households suffered theft of a motor vehicle in the past five years, while 195,000 households experienced property damage.
In the past five years, about 268,000 households experienced assault, while about 514,000 households experienced home robbery. The statistician-general said about 73,000 households experienced sexual offences.
Maluleke said housebreaking was the most prevalent household crime over the past year.
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said: “Housebreaking remains one of the most prevalent crimes affecting communities across SA, and its persistence reflects a complex interplay of socioeconomic and systemic factors.”
Popcru noted these main contributors:
- The high rate of joblessness, especially among young people, “continues to drive some into criminal activities as a means of survival. Poverty-induced desperation often fuels housebreaking as a source of quick financial gain”.
- Substance abuse “creates a cycle of addiction that compels individuals to commit housebreaking to fund their habits”.
- SA remains one of the most unequal societies in the world. “The stark divide between the affluent and impoverished creates fertile ground for property-related crimes.”
- Chronic understaffing, lack of modern investigative tools and the overburdening of detectives with excessive caseloads “limit the police’s ability to effectively deter and solve housebreaking incidents”.
Maluleke said 14,000 murders were reported in the 12 months before the 2024/25 survey. Other statistics in the period included theft of motor vehicle (77,000), assault (158,000), deliberate damage to dwellings (123,000), home robbery (259,000), sexual offence (50,000) and burglaries (1.4-million).
🔑 Key Insights from the victims of crime report
📉 Underreporting is high: Many victims believe police won’t act.
👩 Women most vulnerable: Nearly half of female assaults were by partners at home.
🌙 Safety gap: 81% feel safe by day, only 36% at night.
🛡️ Few self-protection steps: Over half of adults take none.
The report found about 3.2% of victims did not report crimes due to them not trusting police (3.2%), and 3.1% feared reprisals.
About 3.1-million people suffered theft during the past five years, 1.1-million experienced street robbery and 1-million consumer fraud. Maluleke said in 80.1% of street robberies a gun or knife were used.
During the period under review, 582,000 people experienced “psychological violence”, while 132,000 experienced sexual attacks. The report stated 736,000 people were assaulted in the past five years, while 340,000 were victims of hijackings.
Incidences of theft of personal property peaked in June (150,000) and December (144,000). Gauteng, SA’s economic and financial hub, had the highest (3.6%) proportion of theft of personal property, while largely rural Limpopo had the lowest at 1.2%.
In his state of the nation address in February, Ramaphosa said police had partnered with metropolitan municipalities and were working with communities to fight crime in the priority provinces where crime was particularly high. He said government was intensifying Operation Shanela, which had been successful in arresting suspects, recovering firearms and seizing stolen vehicles.
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