KZN Crime Stats: Murders Drop 13%, But Sexual Offences SurgeInanda Tops National List

KwaZulu-Natal has seen a mixed bag of crime statistics for the third quarter (October to December 2025), with significant decreases across most categoriesbut a worrying surge in sexual offences.

The Overview

Presenting the statistics at last week’s Provincial Council Against Crime, Brigadier Willem du Toit of the Crime Registrar said KZN had a 7% decrease in contact crimes.

“The only crime that we had a problem with was sexual offences, which were mostly due to rape cases and attempted sexual offences that increased.”

The Good

• Murders: Down 13%

• Attempted murders: Down 4.9%

• Assault GBH: Down 7.8%

• Common assault: Down 2.7%

• Common robbery: Down 14.3%

• Robbery aggravated: Down 12.3%

• Trio crimes (carjacking, residential robbery, non-residential robbery): Significant decreases

• Cash-in-transit robberies: Dropped from eight cases to two

• Truck hijackings: Declined

• Contact-related crimes (arson, malicious damage to property): Down 8%

• Property-related crimes: Down 9.7%

• Other serious crimes: Down 6.5%

The Bad

• Sexual offences: Upmostly due to rape cases and attempted sexual offences

• Commercial crime: Up 3.6%

• Illegal possession of firearms/ammunition: Up by 174 cases

• Drug-related crimes: Up 16.8%

• Driving under the influence: Up a massive 86.1%

The Concerning

The killing of police officers remains a problem in the province, increasing from two cases in the previous reporting period to seven cases currently.

All seven police officers were off-duty when they were killed.

The Rape Picture

Zooming into rape cases, Du Toit said:

• eThekwini had the highest total contribution with 31.2%

• Inanda is now number one nationally for rape cases, increasing by 14.3%

• Plessislaer remains a problem

• uMlazi is number four nationally, although it recorded a decrease

The Reality

Most rape cases happen indoors.

“Normal police activities and crime prevention activities have little effect on these types of cases,” Du Toit said.

The Bottom Line

Murders are down. Trio crimes are down. Property crimes are down.

But sexual offences are up. Commercial crime is up. Drunk driving is way up.

And Inanda now leads the country in rapea title no community wants.

The numbers tell a story of progress in some areas, and failure in others. The question is what happens next.

{Source: IOL}