Police Minister Senzo Mchunu released the latest crime statistics for the fourth quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year, covering the period from 1 January to 31 March 2025 during a press conference in Pretoria today (23 May).
Nationally, the data reflects a decrease in most crime categories compared to the previous quarter reported to the police, however, within the Drakenstein Municipality, the majority of categories showed an upward trend.
The provinces with the highest overall crime rates remain Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and the Western Cape—the latter continuing to be most affected by gang-related activity.
In the Drakenstein Municipality, the Paarl and Paarl East police stations featured prominently among the top 30 stations with the highest number of reported crimes across eight categories. In contrast, Mbekweni, Wellington, Saron, and Gouda did not appear in any of the top 30 crime categories.
Drakenstein crime statistics
Paarl East ranked second in the Western Cape and sixth nationally for reported sexual assault cases, while Paarl ranked fifth provincially and 11th nationally. Both stations recorded no change compared to the same quarter last year.
Paarl East placed 11th in the Western Cape and 27th nationally for common assault, showing a decrease of 8,1% compared to the previous year, while for contact related crime Paarl East ranked ninth provincially and tenth nationally, recording a 2,2% increase.
Crimes related to burglary at non-residential premises saw Paarl ranked first in the Western Cape and 14th nationally, with a 23.4% increase compared to the same quarter last year.
For burglary at non-residential premises, Paarl East ranked first in the Western Cape and 14th nationally, with a significant increase of 23,4%.
Paarl Police Station ranked seventh in the Western Cape and 26th nationally for all theft not mentioned elsewhere, with a 9,9% increase.
Paarl East ranked 21st in the province and 27th nationally for crime detected as a result of police action, showing a substantial increase of 57,5%.
Additionally, Paarl East was ranked 19th both provincially and nationally for drug-related crime, experiencing a 55,5% rise compared to the previous year.
Announcement on farm attacks
Mchunu also touched on the subject of farm attacks within the country in response to United States pres. Donald Trump’s claims that a “white genocide” is happening in the South Africa.
“In the last few days, we [the South African Police Service] have seen conversations and concerns about crime in South Africa taking a totally different turn, the term “genocide” got forcefully introduced to the scene, in a distinctly foreign and strange manner,” Mchunu said.
“It is claimed that there is “white genocide” in South Africa and as evidence, a lot of material has been put into circulation, including in the White House, in the US.”
“We have respect for the US as a country; we have respect for the people in that country and for President Trump; but we have no respect for this genocide story — at all. It is totally unfounded and unsubstantiated,” Mchunu stated.
According to the fourth-quarter crime statistics, six attacks on rural communities were recorded, involving two farm owners, one farm dweller, two farm employees, and five farm managers.”In principle, we do not categorise people by race, but in the context of claims of genocide against white peoples, we need to unpack the killings in this category. The two farm owners that were murdered during the fourth quarter were African and not white.”
“Further to that, the two farm employees and one farm manager were also African — it is the one farm dweller that was white,” Mchunu stated during the release of the crime statistics in Pretoria.
