Most arrests in the fourth quarter of last year (October- December 2025), were for being in possession of drugs (31,887).
This is out of a total of 221,155 arrests.
This is according to Major General Thulare Sekhukhune, who presented crime statistics at a media briefing, on Friday.
Gender based violence related crimes were second at 20,866 arrests, followed by illegal immigrants (18,694), drunken driving (12,668), possession of dangerous weapons (12,233), dealing in drugs (4064), rape (2,382), murder (1,906) and attempted murder (1,725).
Although there were 602 lesser murders compared to the previous year, some increases were recorded in Northern Cape and Limpopo.
In addition, police destroyed 13,859 guns, bringing the count to 305,934, destroyed in the last seven years.
Firoz Cachalia, the Minister of Police said several interventions to tackle crime include an assessment of Gender Based Violence Crime (GBV), by Dr Polly Boshielo.
Cachalia said a preventative strategy to be implemented to prevent violent crimes such as gang violence, would need buy-in from various stakeholders. The first meeting is with heads of community safety structures- at a MINMEC on the 06 march, to set joint priorities.
He also said he would “re-energise community policing and establish a national patroller program.”
They patrollers would not enforce but monitor.
Cachalia also said a team was set up to investigate police implicated in the Madlanga Commission.