As South Africa battles the plight of gender-based violence, the latest crime statistics show a mixed bag of cases.
Sexual offences recorded between October and December last year decreased slightly, from 14 973 to 14 547.
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Although they fall under different crime categories, cases of sexual offences were higher than murder and attempted murder combined.
While rape, sexual assault, and contact sexual offences declined, attempted sexual offences increased.
Source: Gauteng Department of Community SafetyWestern Cape recorded the highest sexual assault cases, while KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest (2 842) number of overall sexual offences.
Despite the Western Cape reporting fewer sexual offences than Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, three of its police stations captured the highest number of sexual assault cases.
Top police stations for sexual assault reports, by province
Western Cape
Delft Police Station in the City of Cape Town District has the most sexual assault cases reported in the country, 16, the same number as last year.
Interestingly, the Cape Town Central station, part of the same district, was second but jumped from four cases in 2024 to 14 cases in 2025.
Philippi Police Station also saw an increase of eight counts, from five to 13 reports.
Gauteng
Alexandra Police Station in Johannesburg reported the fourth-highest number of cases and the highest in Gauteng for sexual assault cases. Mamelodi Police Station ranks second highest in the province.
KwaZulu-Natal
Kwadukuza was the highest police station in its province and the fifth highest in the country (13), a number it shared with Inanda Police Station.
Free State, Northern Cape and Limpopo
Park Road Police Station recorded the highest number of cases in the Free State.
Kraaifontein in the City of Cape Town, Mamelodi East in Tshwane and Durban Central in eThekwini rounded off the top ten stations.
Kimberley Police Station had the highest sexual assault counts in the Northern Cape, falling 16th nationally, while Polokwane took the cup in Limpopo and placed 22nd in the country.
Source: Gauteng Department of Community SafetySexual offences reported as a result of police action
Durban Central Police Station in eThekwini recorded the highest number of sexual offence cases uncovered through police intervention.
Free State’s Bethlehem Police Station had the second highest (115), while Gauteng’s Barrage station in Sedibeng recorded the highest and the third highest nationally.
Johannesburg Central Police Station recorded 110 cases.
Meanwhile, in the North West, Rustenburg Police Station was the highest in its province. Thlabane, Harrismith, Pietermaritzburg and Vanderbijlpark in Sedibeng were also in the top ten police stations.
Limpopo’s Maake Police Station recorded the highest (63) in its province.
Source: Gauteng Department of Community Safety‘Tip of the iceberg’
Police Minister Firoz Cachalia recently noted that while declines in crime are “encouraging”, the levels remain “unacceptably high”.
Activist groups, including Action Society, have warned that these figures are only the “tip of the iceberg” because only a small fraction of sexual assaults are ever reported to the police.
“We are told how many murders were reported and how many rape cases were opened. But we are not told how many of those cases resulted in convictions.
“Without conviction statistics, the public is denied the full picture. Crime statistics without outcomes create the illusion of accountability, while the real crisis remains hidden,” said Juanita du Preez, spokesperson of Action Society.
The group believes that the latest crime figures do not reflect the true state of the justice system. Without transparent conviction rates, the public cannot see if criminals are actually being punished.
They pointed out that missing data on violence against women and children makes the report incomplete and misleading.