Murder continues to decrease but crime stats still ‘unacceptably high’

Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia announces the crime statistics on 20 February 2026. Picture: x/@SAPoliceService The murder rate in South Africa continued to decrease in the third quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, according to the latest crime statistics. Addressing the media on Friday, Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia said murder and most violent crimes, including rape and robbery, continued to decrease.

Cachalia was giving a report on the crime statistics for the period between 1 October and 31 December 2025. He said after more than a decade of annual increases, murder has been on a downward slope since 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,” Cachalia said.

“This means that over the past two years, the numbers of murders for the third quarter period (1 October to 31 December) had dropped by 17.6% or 1 359 fewer murders.” Total contact crime, made up of all categories of violent crime, also started to decrease in the third quarter of 2024/25. Incidents of violent crime dropped by 6.7% or 12 682 fewer cases reported to the South African Police Service (Saps) when compared to the same quarter in the previous period. “Over the past two years, total violent crime for this quarter is down by 8.3% or 15 763 fewer cases.” The acting minister said the trend may be attributable to enhanced policing operations. However, despite the dips being welcome, Cachalia said the levels of crime remain “unacceptably high”.