Acting Police Minister Prof Firoz Cachalia is expected to release the crime statistics for April to June 2026 in Pretoria.
Image: Bheki Radebe
The Acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia, said that while the murder rate has decreased, South Africans continue to lose their lives through violent crime.
Cachalia is releasing the crime stats for the period April to June 2026 in Pretoria.
"Murder has declined, marking yet another consecutive quarter in which this crime has shown a downward trajectory."
The minister said there have also been significant reductions in carjacking, business robberies and cash-in-transit heists.
He said that despite the reductions, South Africans continue to lose their lives through violent crimes.
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Cachalia said people are entitled to know how many crimes are reported to the SAPS regularly.
“We share this information so that communities, businesses, and public service departments will have a sense of what is happening in their neighbourhoods in terms of crime and related risks. Knowledge is power and enables better and more effective collective action to improve public safety,” he said.
In May, Cachalia presented the statistics for the period January 1 to March 31, 2026. He said South Africa recorded a 9.5% decrease in murders during the fourth quarter of the 2025/2026 financial year. Murders had declined from 5,727 in the corresponding quarter of the previous year to 5,181.
“Most strikingly, murder has decreased nationally by 9.5%,” Cachalia said, describing the figure as the country’s most reliable crime indicator.
The previous quarter statistics decline, he said, formed part of a broader reduction in serious violent crime. During the previous quarter, contact crimes, which include offences involving direct contact between perpetrators and victims, decreased by 4.6%, with 7,405 fewer cases reported than in the same quarter last year.
Cachalia highlighted significant reductions, in the previous quarter statistics, in aggravated robbery categories, attributing the improvements in part to the efforts of police officers and communities working together to combat crime.
Despite the gains, Cachalia cautioned that crime levels remain unacceptably high. South Africa recorded an average of 58 murders a day during the previous quarter.
The previous quarter statistics showed that Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal all recorded notable decreases in murders. However, those four provinces still accounted for more than 80% of all murders nationally.
Cachalia said the government would continue implementing its police reform agenda, strengthen efforts against organised crime and expand violence-prevention initiatives aimed at addressing the social factors driving violent crime.
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