The Acting Minister of Police, Professor Firoz Cachalia, revealed that the homicide rate in the country decreased by 8.7% in the third quarter of 2025, while the statistics of crime by division as a whole decreased by 6.7% during that period.
Cachalia was speaking at a press conference on Friday to present a report on crime in reported incidents between October 1 and December 31, 2025.
The Minister said that the decision to publish crime statistics in the country quarterly is the government’s way of committing to make public everything that affects crime, and everything that is being done to try to correct the situation.
“It is necessary for our people to know how many crime incidents are reported to the police every day, and to see if there is a difference – whether the situation is better or worse. And we want the public, businesses and people to understand what is happening in their areas,” he said.
He said that although many crimes of murder, rape, robbery and burglary continue to decrease, it is unacceptable that they continue to be a nuisance to people every day.
He revealed that murder cases have shown a significant decrease, as they have also decreased in the 2023/24 financial year. In that he decreased by 8.7% which means that he decreased by 602 incidents.
Total crime decreased by 6.7%, which means that its incidents decreased by 12,682, which made that in the last two years, total crime decreased by 8.3%, which means a decrease of 15,763 incidents.
“However, it is important to clarify that although these numbers of crime reductions are a good difference, they are still not good at all as there are still a number of different areas where crime is increasing,” he said.
Continuing, he said that they were pleased with the decrease in murder crimes in five provinces namely KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State and North West. In the Western Cape and Eastern Cape there is a slight decrease; it increased slightly in Limpopo and the Northern Cape.
Cachalia expressed concern over the increasing number of killings of police officers, which revealed that 80% of them are police officers killed off duty.
“This is a big problem and I have decided to cooperate with the police department to try to stop their spread. One of our biggest concerns is the guns used for murder, robbery and organized crime. That’s why we will take steps to find those guns and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands,” said Cachalia.
Regarding the incidents of sexual abuse and abuse of women and children, which have already been declared a disaster in the country – Cachalia said that efforts are already being made to fix and prevent its spread.
He also revealed that on March 6, they will have a meeting with the different agencies responsible for crime in the country to discuss other ways to stop crime in the country.
“We still have a long way to go to fight this situation, and we promise that we will not give up until we win this battle in the country because our aim is for South Africa to be a safe country to live in,” he said.