House break-ins, theft of personal property top crimes committed in SA - Stats SA report

JOHANNESBURG - House break-ins and theft of personal property remain at the top of the list when it comes to crimes committed in South Africa.

On Tuesday morning, Stats SA released their annual Victims of Crime Report under the Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey.

Thousands of households across the country formed part of the survey, which asked South Africans to recall crimes committed over a five-year period.

More than 2.6 million households in the country reported incidents of housebreakings in the past year.

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke on Tuesday morning released the statistics relating to the victim crime report covering the 2024/25 period.

He said that housebreakings was a crime consistently at the top of the list when it comes to crimes committed in households across SA. 

"The other crimes at household level continue to decline, whereas housebreaking continues to increase."

He said that while housebreakings remained a prevalent crime, it was not often reported to police for various reasons.

"Members of the public are saying there is no way they can prove to the police that it happened or the police would not do anything."

When it comes to crimes committed against individuals, theft of personal property remains high, with an estimated 1.3 million incidents in the 2024/25 period.