Although the overall murder rate has decreased, more women have been killed over the last quarter than over the same period last year.

The latest stats show a positive turn for many of South Africa’s more problematic crime categories as violent crimes like murder is tracking lower in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, with 6,228 murders recorded vs 6,424 murders in the previous period.

Sexual offences are also down with 2%, while carjacking has also eased, down with 6.4% year-on-year, however, while these crime categories are not as bad as they were in Q1 2022/23, the numbers are still alarmingly high.

6,228 murders over a period of three months is a staggeringly high number, averaging 68 murders a day in the country.

Other violent crimes such as attempted

murder, common assault, and assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm – also tracked higher over the period, leading to the contact crimes category jumping by 4.8%.

Meanwhile, the head of SAPS crime research, Norman Sekhukhune said there was an increase of 40 counts more in terms of murders of women, 238 counts more of attempted murders, 1,138 in terms of assault GBH (grievous bodily harm).

Police Minister Bheki Cele also said the stats reflect that the police are turning the tide on crime, and the trend should continue.

"Since the start of the period we have arrested over 70,000 people, excluding this last weekend and these arrests are mostly related to serious crimes like murder, rape and hijacking," Cele said.

However, he said there is growing concern about the number of foreign nationals in the country illegally linked to these crimes.

"These criminals are effectively untraceable as their fingerprints and DNA are not recorded or linked to local databases," Cele added.

With 6,228 people killed, the latest murder statistics make the Eastern Cape the most dangerous province per capita, followed by KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape.