Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya, [email protected]
SOUTH AFRICAN Police Service (Saps) provincial commander for Limpopo, Lieutenant-General Thembi Hadebe, together with the Member of Executive Committee (MEC) for Transport and Community Safety, Ms Violet Mathye, on Monday released the third quarter crime statistics for the 2025/2026 financial year (October-December 2025), highlighting an overall decline in crime across most categories.
Limpopo province is home to many Zimbabweans and other SADC citizens who live in different towns or pass through the province daily for cross border business.
According to Lt-Gen Hadebe, overall crime performance showed significant improvement, with contact crimes — which include violent offences where victims are directly targeted with physical harm, sexual violence or threats — decreasing by 11,7 percent.
She said trio crimes, which cover residential robbery, business robbery and carjacking, fell by 24,4 percent, while contact related crimes dropped by 5,6 percent.
Property crimes declined by 15,2 percent and other serious crimes by 8,6 percent, bringing the total reduction across the 17 priority crime categories to 11,2 percent.
“During the third quarter, murder cases in the province increased by 5,9 percent. The province recorded 203 murder cases the previous year, this quarter we recorded 215, representing 12 additional incidents,” said Lt Gen Hadebe.
“While this increase is a matter of concern, it is important to note that overall contact crimes continued their downward trend when compared to the same period last year.
“Despite this increase, we still maintained 3,5 percent on a 100 000 population per capita basis and still remain the lowest in the country for the past five consecutive years.
“It is worth mentioning that the murder trend for the period of five years has declined to 25,9 percent.”
She said that during the period under review, 180 people were arrested for illegal possession of firearms, while 243 firearms and a substantial amount of ammunition were recovered, reflecting intensified efforts to remove illegal weapons from circulation.
A total of 2 654 people were arrested for drug related crimes — a rise of 3,4 percent.
Additionally, 1 665 arrests were made for drunk driving (a 40,4 percent increase), 178 suspects were arrested for murder, 91 for attempted murder, 288 for rape, 4 285 undocumented foreign nationals were apprehended, 2 471 illegal mining operations were conducted, 1 858 unlicensed shebeens were closed and 103 hijacked or stolen vehicles were recovered.
In ongoing efforts to combat gender-based violence and femicide, Lt Gen Hadebe said the province recorded a 5,8 percent drop in sexual offences. Rape decreased by 5,5 percent, sexual assault increased by three cases, while attempted sexual assault fell by 15 cases.
“We are bolstering our FCS unit with additional personnel; 124 police officers are currently in field development and will be serving in this unit and other critical environments. This is a clear demonstration of our commitment to hold accountable perpetrators of violence against women and children,” she said.
Speaking at the same briefing, MEC Ms Violet Mathye welcomed the overall crime reduction but voiced concern over the rise in murder cases. She commended Saps for its dedicated work and urged communities to keep reporting crime and supporting prevention initiatives.
The briefing was attended by heads of Transport and Community Safety, District Commissioners, senior Saps officials, union representatives, the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster (JCPS), strategic partners and members of the media.
