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Four police officers were also murdered while on duty, raising concerns about officer safety.
KZN police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Picture: Saps
A total of 105 suspects have been killed in 38 shootouts with KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) police in the first nine months of the past financial year.
This was revealed by South African Police Services (Saps) commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi during a media briefing in Durban on Monday.
Mkhwanazi said the suspects who were killed during the shootout were linked to murders, extortion, armed robberies, cash-in-transit (CIT) heists and other crimes.
The commissioner also revealed that from April to December 2024, at least 4 278 people were killed in KZN, a decrease of 11% compared to the same period last year, during which 4 836 people were killed.
“When you look at the number of incidents of attacks on our citizens, it’s way above the attacks on police. 4 278 people were killed in this province in nine months, and only 105 criminals died. So, which means criminals are at war with the citizens.”
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Mkhwanazi also revealed that four police officers were also murdered while on duty.
“If you hurt one police officer, you are removing that officer from the society and also depriving thousands of people in the province of getting the service. Losing four police officers in this period is concerning for us.
Mkhwanazi said the officers were attacked while they were part of a team attempting to apprehend a criminal.
“It could be ten police officers that are coming to a crime scene to apprehend the criminals, and one would die. But you can imagine if all those 10 officers died. It’s one too many for us and the citizens,” said Mkhwanazi.
Mkhwanazi also revealed that from April to December 2024, a total of 144 392 suspects were arrested, with 11,628 of those being undocumented foreign nationals.
Mkhwanazi said even though murders decreased in the province by 558 compared to the same period in 2023, he expressed concern over the persistently high number of contact crimes had increased by 3.7% from 84 998 in 2023 to 88 104 in 2024.
The police commissioner outlined plans of deeper collaboration with the community policing forums and investments in technology to boost crime detection and prevention.
“We are working towards reducing crime to the levels we saw in 2020, but it is a challenging task given the current environment,” Mkhwanazi said.
Mkhwanazi described CIT heists as the “devil that is troubling us” and said police will be working with businesses and other stakeholders to find a solution.
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