Crime statistics
Zainul Dawood|Published
Restoring discipline, professionalism, ethical conduct and operational excellence at every level of the SAPS was one of the three pillars of the police reset agenda.
This was outlined when the SAPS briefed the Select Committee on Security and Justice on the annual report for 2025/2026. The briefing outlined the SAPS achievement of predetermined performance targets for the financial year between April 1 and March 31, 2026.
Major General Leon Rabie outlined the operating reality of the 2025/2026 year. He said the service delivery environment consisted of persistent violent crime, organised crime, GBVF, extortion, cybercrime and crimes affecting critical and essential infrastructure.
Rabie said the underlying drivers were poverty, unemployment, inequality, substance abuse, rapid urbanisation and the proliferation of illegal firearms. He said the SAPS's financial constraints led to an increasing demand for policing services, ageing infrastructure and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and network limitations.
Vacancies
He also outlined vacancies in specialised operational environments and resource constraints in forensic and detective services.
Rabie said the year was materially shaped by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and established by the President in July 2025 and by the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee established by the National Assembly to investigate allegations made by Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
“The Department co-operated fully with both processes, providing information, documentation and technical support, coordinating departmental responses, managing information requests and participating in hearings. These activities placed additional demands on management, governance and operational capacity, and necessitated interim governance and management arrangements in certain operational environments to ensure continuity of leadership, decision-making and command,” Rabie said.
Three analytical lenses
General Sehlahle Fannie Masemola, SAPS National Commissioner, said the briefing does not confine itself to a recitation of targets met and missed. He said it applies three analytical lenses to the results so that the committee can distinguish between delivery failure, target miscalibration and factors beyond the control of the SAPS. The three are
- outcome movement measured against output target
- controllability - whether the deviation sat inside SAPS control, was shared with another organ of state, or lay wholly outside it
- target design - including the fact that performance for 2025/2026 was reported against two tabled Annual Performance Plans.
“We have also voluntarily disclosed those instances in which the Auditor-General found our reported achievement to be understated,” he said.
Targets met
The SAPS report stated that 52,13% of predetermined targets were achieved, with a departmental aggregate across all five programmes
It also outlined that 100% of the appropriated budget was spent: R120,889 billion with zero underexpenditure in every programme. The SAPS recorded a 5,2% reduction in reported contact crime from 664,758 in 2024/2025 down to 630,259 in 2025/2026
The SAPS recorded a 9,4% reduction in reported murders from 25,573 down to 23,171. “We have also achieved an unqualified audit opinion on the financial statements for the sixth consecutive year,” he said.
IOL