Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia released the fourth quarter crime statistics at 1pm on Friday.
Image: GCIS
The South African Police Service (SAPS) released the country’s latest crime statistics on Friday afternoon, revealing crime trends across the country for the fourth quarter of the last financial year (January to March 2026).
Among the highlights, violent crime declined by 4.6% versus the same quarter last year, while murder decreased nationally by 9.5% and house robberies fell by 20.4%. There were 8.2 murders per 100,000 people nationally, with the Eastern Cape recording the highest ratio at 14.3.
See the rest of the highlights in our live blog below:
The release comes after the SAPS published its third-quarter crime statistics earlier this year, which showed a mixed picture of crime in South Africa. The country recorded a decline in several major violent crime categories during the October to December 2025 period.
Despite these declines, concerns remained over persistently high levels of violent crime and gender-based violence. More than 11,000 rape cases were still recorded in a single quarter, while several police precincts in the Western Cape and Gauteng continued to rank among the country’s worst-affected areas for murder and violent crime.
Today’s release is expected to provide further insight into whether those downward trends continued into the first three months of 2026, as well as highlighting emerging crime hotspots and policing challenges nationwide.
IOL News