Over half of SA housebreakings go unreported to police

More than half of the housebreakings that took place in South Africa during 2025/26 were never reported to the police, largely because victims believed nothing would be done. The finding, drawn from Statistics South Africa’s latest Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey, points to a gap between the crime ordinary households experience and the crime that official statistics capture, with consequences for how policing resources are shared out across the country.

The survey, conducted between April 2025 and March 2026 across private households in all nine provinces as well as residents in workers’ hostels, found that 1.08 million households experienced housebreaking during the period, representing 5.3% of households nationally. Yet only 48.2% of those affected reported some or all of the incidents to the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The reasons victims gave are central to the public-safety picture. Some 24.4% of household heads affected by crime said they did not think it was worthwhile reporting to the police, while a further 21.8% said police could do nothing or that there was insufficient proof. Others said they had solved the matter themselves, believed police involvement was unnecessary, or reported the matter elsewhere. The survey does not suggest that everyone who stays silent distrusts the police, but the figures do reinforce concerns about public confidence in policing.

When crimes go unreported, they do not enter SAPS statistics in the same way as reported cases, which can affect how the extent of crime is understood and how policing resources are allocated. That is the everyday stake for citizens: what gets counted shapes what gets policed.

Community safety organisations in the Jewish community are among those urging people to close that gap. Liron Sanders, chief executive of the CSO, agreed that community members do not always want to open cases with SAPS. “While we see a lot of people hesitant to open cases, we strongly encourage the community to open cases as it assists with resourcing at a station department level,” he said. Sanders noted that the CSO works closely with SAPS and has a strong relationship with relevant police stations, and stressed the effect under-reporting can have on community security. “We rely on police statistics to drive our operational response.”

CAP data shows a similar pattern of under-reporting, particularly for less serious crimes. Sean Jammy, CAP’s deputy chief executive, said its 2026 data showed a SAPS case was opened in 58% of contact crimes reported to CAP. The figure was higher for serious crimes: home invasions were reported to SAPS in 84% of cases, hijackings in 58%, and armed robberies in public spaces in 46%. Only 39% of attempted contact crimes were reported.

The gap widens further for what CAP calls soft crimes. Just 24% of these incidents were reported to SAPS, including 54% of burglaries, 21% of snatch-and-grab incidents and only 17% of thefts. “The Stats SA report reflects something we see every day: many victims feel that opening a case will not lead anywhere, and so they don’t,” Jammy said. CAP nevertheless urged victims to report every crime, regardless of how serious it seemed. “When we apprehend a suspect, we work with SAPS and the prosecuting authority to support the docket through to conviction,” he said. “That process depends on a case having been opened by the victim.”

Meanwhile, the national figures bear out the pattern that seriousness drives reporting. An estimated 1.4 million incidents of theft of personal property were experienced by people aged 16 and older, but only 37.3% of victims reported some or all incidents. An estimated 459 000 people experienced street robbery, involving about 515 000 incidents, and only 41.7% reported some or all of them. Among those who did not report street robbery, 36.8% said police would not do anything about it, up from 32.6% in 2024/25. The second most common reason, cited by 23.1% of victims, was that police could do nothing or lacked proof, down from 26.3% the previous year.

Reporting rises sharply with the gravity of the offence. Some or all incidents were reported in 77.3% of hijacking cases and 67% of sexual offences, while murder had the highest reporting rate among the household crimes measured, at 94%. The survey therefore draws a clear distinction between the crime people actually experience and the crime that enters official police statistics.

There were some improvements during 2025/26. Housebreaking reporting increased from 43.4% to 48.2%, and street robbery reporting rose from 36.4% to 41.7%. Household crime generally declined, with seven of the eight household crime categories measured showing decreases over the 12 months. Individual assault, however, increased from 363 000 victims in 2024/25 to 408 000 in 2025/26.

The survey also shows South Africans taking more steps to protect themselves. The proportion of people aged 16 and older who had done something to protect themselves rose from 43.3% in 2024/25 to 46.6% in 2025/26. The most common measure was changing when people walked outside, with 31.5% saying they only walked during safer hours. A further 29.9% had installed physical security measures at home, such as security gates, and about 7.3% had turned to private security, including paid armed response. Of those who took such measures, 78.3% said they felt safer afterwards.

Feelings of safety still vary sharply by circumstance and place. While 80.7% of people felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood during the day, only 37.9% felt safe doing so after dark. Women were particularly likely to feel unsafe: 45.1% of women said they felt very unsafe walking alone after dark in 2025/26, compared with 38.8% of men. The Western Cape had the highest proportion of people who felt unsafe walking alone during the day, at 30.1%, followed by Gauteng at 25.8%.

Yet reliance on the police remains strong. When witnessing a crime, 40.8% of South Africans said they would call the police first, making it the most common response. Taken together, the findings present a complex picture of public safety, with continued reliance on police running alongside real doubts about whether reporting a crime will lead to action. Whether the modest rise in reporting rates continues into the next survey cycle may say a great deal about how much citizens believe the system will respond.