Crime statistics for the third quarter of 2025/26 show a decline in violent crime, yet the move by President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy the South African Defence Force (SANDF) to help police fight crime in affected provinces has drawn support.
National Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia released the third quarter crime statistics on Friday 20 February.
This covers the period between Wednesday 1 October to Wednesday 31 December last year.
Cachalia said after more than a decade of annual increases, murder started decreasing on the first quarter of 2023-24.
According to quarter 3 statistics murder saw an 8,7% decrease.
“This means that over the past two years, the numbers of murders for the quarter 3 Period (1 October to 31 December) had dropped by 17,6% or 1 359 fewer murders,” explained Cachalia.
In the Western Cape, crime has decreased by 3,4% in the province’s overall murder rate for Quarter 3 of 2025/26.
This represents a decrease of 41 murders over this period.
Premier Alan Winde said while there has been a decrease in the murder rate, far too many residents are dying at the hands of gangsters.
“The evidence is clear — cooperative, locally managed policing works. These proven programmes must be urgently funded by national government and rolled out in every single policing precinct without delay. We will continue fighting for fair resource allocation for our province.”
The Kensington area is just one of many communities on the Cape Flats that’s been plagued by gang related violence and shooting since last year.
In a most recent incident, a man believed to be in his late 30s was shot dead outside a tuck shop on the corner of 5th Avenue and Voortrekker Road on Monday 16 February.
According to police, two men exited a vehicle and opened fire on the victim in what is believed to be a gang-related attack.
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Kensington station commander Lt Col Nkosinathi Losini said the perpetrators got back into their vehicle afterwards and drove off.
Cheslyn Steenberg, Ward 56 councillor, said despite ongoing gang violence residents must continue to push for peace, unity and justice in their community.
“This does not stop us from being persistent in seeking community cohesion and justice against the gang violence we are currently seeing.”
Steenberg welcomed Ramaphosa’s commitment to have the SANDF deployed to assist in combating crime in the province.
“I support the deployment of the SANDF. We have been calling for it. We know that the SANDF are not trained for policing communities.
“We ask that the community also play their role by giving information and not hinder the work of the police.”
Prof Guy Lamb, Criminologist and senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University, said since the late 1990s, the military has repeatedly been deployed to assist the police in combating crime, including gang-related violence, in South Africa.
“My research on high density policing operations in South Africa has demonstrated that deploying the military can result in the reduction of violent crime (especially murder) in targeted areas. But this is dependent on the arrest of large numbers of “wanted” criminals. And the seizure of large quantities of illegal firearms.”
Lamb added that soldiers are trained to use lethal force and are not schooled in the “subtleties of police work” and noted that crime reduction effect of military deployment is temporary.
He welcomed the President’s commitment to implementing the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy and strengthening firearm control measures.
Winde said in a press statement that the deployment of the SANDF to the Western Cape as a force multiplier must be followed by an urgent overhaul of the country’s entire criminal justice system.
