The Inanda police station reported the most contact crimes in the country between January and March this year.
Image: Doctor Ngcobo / Independent Newspapers
Inanda in Durban has a police station that reported the most contact crimes in the fourth quarter of the 2025/26 financial year (January – March 2026) across the country.
According to the latest crime statistics released by Acting Police Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia on Friday, the station reported 1,156 contact crimes during this period.
Contact crimes are described by the police as those where there is direct contact between the perpetrator and the victim.
Nine of the top 30 police stations that reported the most contact crimes or crimes against a person are in KwaZulu-Natal, and besides Inanda, the others are Plessislaer, Umlazi, KwaDukuza, Chatsworth, Ntuzuma, Durban Central, Empangeni, and Verulam.
Contact crimes include murder, attempted murder, sexual offences (rape, sexual assault, attempted sexual offences, and contact sexual offences), assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, common assault, and robbery with aggravating circumstances, among others.
The police indicated that contact-related crimes include arson and malicious damage to property.
“These two crimes are closely related and involve damage to or the destruction of another person’s property (often to punish such a person or entity) or to damage one’s own property for insurance claims,” stated the police’s crime registrar, Major-General Thulare Sekhukhune.
Additionally, among the top 30 police stations reporting 17 community-reported serious crimes, which are subdivided into four broad categories – contact, contact-related, property-related, and other serious crimes – a third are in KwaZulu-Natal.
The police stations are Inanda, Durban Central, Phoenix, Plessislaer, Chatsworth, KwaDukuza, Pinetown, Empangeni, Umlazi, and Verulam.
Cachalia said Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal all recorded notable decreases in murders and account for over 80% of all murders in the country.
While murders decreased nationally by 9.5% during the first three months of 2026, there were 8.2 murders per 100,000 people across South Africa, according to the acting minister.
“The Eastern Cape presents the highest risk with 14.3 murders per 100,000 people, followed by the Western Cape with 12.8 murders per 100,000 people and then KwaZulu-Natal at 8.8,” Cachalia revealed.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za