SA recorded a 9.5% decrease in murders in the fourth quarter of the 2025/2026 financial year, with 546 fewer people killed compared with the same period a year earlier, police minister Firoz Cachalia said in May.
Presenting the crime statistics for the period January 1 to March 31, Cachalia said murders had declined from 5,727 in the corresponding quarter of the previous year to 5,181.
Compared with the same quarter in 2024, murders fell by 1,355 cases, representing a 20.7% decrease.
It is welcome news that such crimes are on the decrease, but the figures are still way too high compared with other countries.
In three separate incidents within hours of each other last week, former two-division world boxing champion Zolani Tete and ANC members Aubrey Tsengwa, Mandla Matiwane and Mandla Tyololo were brazenly murdered, destroying the lives of their families.
These senseless killings are a devastating reminder of how cheap life has become in SA.
Tete, who was shot dead in Mdantsane on Friday evening, was an international sports icon who rose from the streets of the Eastern Cape to conquer the world stage.
Yet, his status offered absolutely no protection against the senseless violence that terrorises ordinary South Africans every single day.
Just hours after former Knysna mayor Tsengwa was gunned down, ward 7 councillor Matiwane and Knysna Codeta Taxi Association chair Tyololo were shot dead, also in the Garden Route town.
The victims cannot be reduced to statistics. They were sons, husbands and fathers. Families lost breadwinners and people they loved.
We need justice for their families and for every other murder statistic that has and has not been recorded.
We cannot become complacent and accept that this is the norm in our beautiful country. Killing people is not normal.
Violent crime in SA is out of control.
We cannot celebrate a decrease in crime when the reality on the ground paints a different picture of people mourning lost loved ones due to senseless killings.
The government needs to become more proactive and show initiative to curb these wanton killings.
One life lost to murder is one too many.
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