SAPS Cannot Tell Parliament How Many Political Killings Were Recorded Since 2020

• Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia told Parliament he could not provide figures on political killings recorded since January 2020
• The parliamentary question asked for a provincial and annual breakdown, plus data on arrests, prosecutions, convictions and acquittals
• A recent report estimated that 26 political killings had already been recorded in South Africa in 2026 alone

SOUTH AFRICA — The South African Police Service is unable to supply Parliament with consolidated figures on politically motivated killings recorded since the start of 2020, exposing a significant gap in the state's ability to monitor and address one of the country's most persistent security challenges.

uMkhonto weSizwe Party MP Crossby Vusi Shongwe submitted a parliamentary question to Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia requesting the number of political killing cases registered from 1 January 2020. The question called for a breakdown by province and year, along with details on arrests, prosecutions, convictions and acquittals, as well as information on cases still under investigation and what was causing delays in resolving them.

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Why SAPS could not answer

Cachalia confirmed he was unable to furnish the requested figures. He explained that producing them would require the manual review of individual case records across every province and reporting period. The minister said committing resources to that process would pull capacity away from frontline policing duties and risk affecting service delivery to communities.

The minister did, however, outline the main factors behind delays in finalising political killing investigations. He cited the complex nature of such cases, which frequently involve premeditated or organised conduct, witnesses who are intimidated or unwilling to cooperate, difficulties locating suspects, and the time required for forensic and evidentiary processes. Cachalia also pointed to dependencies on prosecutorial decisions and court scheduling.

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Scale of the problem

The admission comes against a backdrop of mounting concern about the frequency of political violence in South Africa. It is estimated that roughly 500 publicly known political killings had taken place in the country between 2000 and mid-2026. The same report recorded 26 such killings already in 2026, a figure higher than the 24 logged throughout 2024 and the 25 recorded in 2025.

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Without reliable, centralised data, law enforcement agencies face greater difficulty identifying patterns, directing investigative resources and measuring whether ongoing efforts are producing results.

With local government elections expected in less than three months, the absence of basic statistics on political killings since 2020 underscores how much ground remains to be covered in tracking and countering politically motivated violence

Politics is a dangerous profession

Briefly News reported that working in politics in South Africa could cost you your life. That is the stark warning from Julian Rademeyer, senior advisor to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, who says politically motivated killings remain a serious and growing threat heading into another local government election cycle. This is because local government controls access to municipal resources, state contracts and key administrative appointments. When those resources shrink, and competition intensifies, disputes that might elsewhere be resolved through ballots or boardrooms are instead settled with bullets.

Source: Briefly News