DA to picket outside Lesufi’s office over 'rising crime'

According to the DA, Lesufi has repeatedly expressed that fighting crime was a priority for his administration, but has failed to deliver. 

The DA leader in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga, will hand over a memorandum of demands to the premier outlining the party’s concerns on crime.

“We have crisscrossed this province and seen how police stations are without holding cells and how women and men in blue are actually struggling without vehicles,” he said ahead of the picket. 

Msimanga accused the provincial government of being the cause of the lack of trust between community members and the police. 

“We have seen kidnapping crimes rise and hijacking cases. We have seen more and more kids continuing to be killed, which is a challenge we have asked Panyaza to address.”

 The picket comes a day after the latest Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey was released by Statistics South Africa. 

Housebreaking remains the most prevalent household crime in South Africa.

The survey, which tracks household and individual experiences of crime, shows that an estimated 1.5 million incidents of housebreaking occurred during the 2024/25 financial year, affecting around 1.1 million households—roughly 5.7% of all households in the country. 

Despite the high incidence, only 43% of households reported some or all incidents to the police.

"The report shows that in 2024/25, an estimated 1.5 million incidences of housebreaking occurred, affecting 1.1 million households in South Africa. The number of affected households represents 5.7% of all households in the country. About 43% (43.4%) of households that experienced housebreaking reported some or all incidents to the police," said Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke.

Home robbery was the second most common household crime, with 259,000 incidents affecting 213,000 households, representing 1.1% of all households. 

Around 51% of these cases were reported to the police.

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