Gauteng Ranked SA’s Carjacking Hotspot As New SAPS Data Splits Mzansi
- Gauteng recorded more than half of South Africa's total carjackings between April and June 2026, according to newly analysed SAPS data
- South Africa saw 3,811 carjackings during the quarter, a significant drop from the same period in 2025
- The full nine-province breakdown reveals a striking gap between the highest and lowest-ranked regions
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SOUTH AFRICA — Gauteng dominated South Africa's carjacking figures for the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, accounting for 2,207 of the 3,811 cases recorded nationally between April and June 2026.
The provincial breakdown was compiled by data specialists at playcasino.com, with figures cross-referenced against official SAPS material released on 28 August 2026. The national total represents an 18.2% decline from the 4,657 carjackings recorded during the same quarter in 2025.
Gauteng's share of the national total
Gauteng's 2,207 cases represented 57.9% of all carjackings recorded across South Africa during the quarter. The Western Cape followed with 548 cases, KwaZulu-Natal recorded 481, and the Eastern Cape logged 195. Together, those four provinces accounted for roughly 90% of all reported carjackings nationally.
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The full nine-province ranking is as follows: Gauteng (2,207), Western Cape (548), KwaZulu-Natal (481), Eastern Cape (195), Mpumalanga (192), North West (110), Limpopo (46), Free State (27), and Northern Cape (5). The gap between Gauteng and the lowest-ranked province, the Northern Cape, stood at 2,202 cases.
A data specialist at playcasino.com cautioned against reading too much into the raw figures:
"The ranking shows where recorded cases are concentrated, but it should not be read as the chance that an individual journey will end in a carjacking. The figures are reported cases, so the most responsible reading is the scale of the gap between provinces rather than a prediction for any one driver."
No population or vehicle denominator was applied to the provincial totals. Without a consistent denominator across all nine provinces, a per-driver rate could not be calculated without risking a misleading comparison.
Broader crime picture from Stats SA
The carjacking data arrives alongside a broader crime survey from Statistics South Africa. The agency's Governance, Public Safety, and Justice Survey 2025/26, released on 1 September 2026, found that housebreaking remained the most prevalent household crime, with over 1.5 million incidents affecting 1.08 million households during the 2025/26 reference period.
The survey also found that 80.7% of South Africans feel safe walking alone in their neighbourhoods during the day, a figure that drops sharply to 37.9% after dark. The proportion of individuals taking active steps to protect themselves against crime rose from 43.3% in 2024/25 to 46.6% in 2025/26.
More on crime in South Africa
- Briefly News recently reported on South Africans' fury after a true crime creator broke down the disturbing details of the Boksburg couple's murder.
- Gauteng man accused of fatally stabbing a young man during Spring Day celebrations has dropped his bid for bail.
- Elsewhere, a group of Cape Town hijackers made a rookie mistake that led police straight to their door.
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Source: Briefly News
