By Thapelo Molefe
Gauteng residents, particularly those living in metropolitan areas, face some of the country’s highest levels of street robbery and theft of personal property, while more than 73% say they feel unsafe walking alone in their neighbourhoods after dark, according to Statistics South Africa.
The findings are contained in Stats SA’s 2025/26 Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey, released by Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke on Tuesday alongside the 2025/26 Victims of Crime report.
The survey found that people living in metropolitan areas were more likely to experience several forms of crime than those living outside metros, with street robbery particularly concentrated in urban areas.
About 312,000 people aged 16 and older living in metros experienced street robbery during 2025/26, representing 1.5% of the metro population. This compares with 147,000 people, or 0.6%, in non-metropolitan areas.
The Western Cape recorded the highest proportion of people experiencing street robbery at 1.7%, followed by Gauteng at 1.4%.
Nationally, the survey estimated 515,000 incidents of street robbery affecting 459,000 people. Only 41.7% of victims reported at least one incident to police.
Weapons were used in 78.4% of street robbery incidents, with knives accounting for 56.4% and guns for 51.9%.
The pattern was similar for theft of personal property, with 673,000 people in metropolitan areas experiencing the crime, compared with 480,000 in non-metropolitan areas.
The victimisation rate was 3.2% in metros, compared with 2.0% outside metros.
Gauteng recorded about 370,000 victims of theft of personal property, representing 2.8% of the province’s population aged 16 and older.
Theft of personal property was the most common individual crime experienced by people aged 16 and older, affecting about 1.1 million people nationally during 2025/26.
However, 62.7% of victims did not report any of the incidents to police.
Among the main reasons cited were the belief that police would not do anything and that police could not act because there was insufficient proof.
Maluleke stressed that the Stats SA figures should not be confused with police-recorded crime statistics.
“SAPS is a stakeholder. It’s part of what we call the national statistical system,” he said.
He said SAPS collects information from police stations on reported crimes, while Stats SA conducts household surveys to capture people’s experiences of crime.
“We go to the household. So we do have workers who go to the household to sit down with the household to understand what type of crime that the household has experienced,” Maluleke said.
He said the two sources complement each other because police statistics are based on reported crimes, while Stats SA’s survey captures experiences that may never be reported.
“It’s from the record, and then this is from the household side,” he said.
The distinction is significant given the low reporting rates recorded for several crimes.
Maluleke said only about 48% of housebreaking incidents were reported to police, while 52% of home robbery incidents were reported.
Nationally, housebreaking remained the most common household crime, with 1.08 million households experiencing the crime during 2025/26, resulting in about 1.55 million incidents.
Non-metropolitan households were more likely to experience housebreaking than those in metros, with victimisation rates of 8.2% and 7.1%, respectively.
Home robbery, however, was more prevalent in metropolitan areas.
About 1.3% of households in metros experienced home robbery, compared with 0.9% in non-metropolitan areas.
In total, 179,000 households experienced home robbery during 2025/26.
Weapons were used in about 56% of home robbery incidents. Guns were the most common weapon, accounting for 60.4% of incidents in which weapons were used, followed by knives at 40.1%.
Assault was also more likely to be experienced by households in metropolitan areas.
About 121,000 households experienced assault during 2025/26, with weapons used in 57.8% of incidents. Knives were the most common weapon.
Maluleke also cautioned against drawing a direct link between unemployment and overall crime levels.
He said the data did not support a simple national correlation between unemployment and crime.
“The Western Cape, from our quarterly labour force survey, has consistently beyond 10% had the lowest unemployment rate. But when you look in terms of theft of personal property as well as street robbery at personal level, it’s still high. So you can’t link the two,” he said.
He cited Limpopo as another example, saying the province had relatively high unemployment but lower levels of several crimes and higher feelings of safety.
“Limpopo shows that people are relatively safe walking during the day and during the night,” Maluleke said.
He clarified, however, that unemployment was identified by respondents as a factor in violence against women and children.
For that category, 65.6% of men and 64.6% of women identified unemployment as a cause.
“The Statistician-General can only report as it has been said,” Maluleke said.
“And thus, a general link or generalisation of the link of unemployment, when the data shows fluctuations based on different crimes, would not be appropriate.”
Gauteng’s safety perceptions stood out against the national picture.
Nationally, 80.7% of people aged 16 and older said they felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhoods during the day, while only 37.9% said they felt safe walking alone after dark.
Limpopo recorded the highest daytime feeling of safety, at 98%, and the highest proportion of residents who felt safe walking alone at night, at 69.1%.
Gauteng was at the opposite end of the scale at night, with more than 73% of residents saying they felt unsafe walking alone in their neighbourhoods after dark.
During the day, 25.8% of Gauteng residents said they felt unsafe walking alone in their neighbourhoods, second only to the Western Cape at 30.1%.
Maluleke said the figures should be considered alongside actual experiences of crime and should not be treated as a direct measure of police performance or unemployment.
The survey measures people’s experiences and perceptions of crime and complements, rather than replaces, police-recorded crime statistics.
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