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[FILE IMAGE]: Police conduct New Year crime prevention operations in Northern Cape on January 1, 2025.
The latest crime statistics for the fourth quarter of 2024/25 by the SAPS today show decreases in many crime categories, but the number of crime occurrences are still extremely high.
Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu, told the country during a briefing on Friday that people’s lived experiences don’t reflect the declines shown in the latest statistics.
“The crime statistics are based on crimes that get reported, and we see a decline in various categories of crime, as will be reported today. We note that there is more crime in terms of daily lived experience and a feeling of vulnerability. It is for this reason that we are adjusting our methods of fighting crime and adapting to the new trends and threats out there,” he said.
Most contact crimes down
The released crime statistics for the period starting on 1 January 2025 and ending on 31 March 2025 show 5,727 murders throughout the country, which was 809 fewer peopled killed when compared to the same period last year, showing a decline of 12,4%.
Other contact crimes also showed year-on-year decreases such as robbery with aggravating circumstances which saw 3,677 fewer cases reported, representing a decrease of 10,4%.
The only contact crime showing a small increase is sexual crimes, which showed almost no change by having six more cases than the 13,446 cases of sexual offences reported last year. Sexual offences as a category encompass crimes such as rape and sexual assault, and the latest stats show that rape cases remain high with 10,688 cases reported in the three-month period between January and March.
Other serious crimes
Data on other serious crimes shows that carjacking, cash-in-transit heists and robberies at non-residential premises have gone down but kidnappings and commercial crime are up compared to last year.
Carjackings decreased by 15,1% despite having 4,533 cases reported, and robbery at non-residential premises saw 3,298 reported cases, which was a 23,4% decrease from last year. However, the police reported that there was a 6,8% increase in kidnapping, increasing to 4,571 cases, and the 4,7% increase in commercial crime saw 35,374 cases reported.
