Over 2.6million households reported housebreaking in 2024/25 – Stats SA

702 and CapeTalk’s Mandy Wiener speaks with Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General of South Africa

Listen below:

The `Victims of Crime' report for 2024/2025 revealed that housebreaking is the most prominent crime in the country.

More than 2.6million households reported incidents of housebreaking in this period.

Housebreaking refers to burglaries committed when a person has entered the home while no household members are present.

This differs from home robberies which take place when at least one person is home.

According to Maluleke other household level crimes have been declining, but housebreaking continues to increase especially around holiday periods.

“Criminals tend to take advantage of people not being around at home.”

- Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General of South Africa (IN: 01:30)

The statistics also reveal that South Africans feel less safe walking in their own neighbourhoods than they did 5 years ago.

RELATED: 15% increase in kidnappings in Gauteng reflects disturbing trend across SA - crime analyst

In 2020 85% of people felt safe walking in their neighbourhood during the day, compared to 81% this year.

However, at night only around 36% of people feel safe walking in their neighbourhoods.

Scroll up to the audio player for more.