Image Source: Mail and Guardian
South Africa – Between October and December 2024, 685 Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) perpetrators were convicted and sentenced to prison.
Among them, 110 received life sentences, while 71 were sentenced to 20 years or more. Another 174 were sentenced to between 10 and 19 years, and 330 received sentences ranging from one to nine years.
National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola praised law enforcement for their relentless pursuit of justice regarding GBVF, reaffirming SAPS’s commitment to ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable and removed from society.
“Our men and women in blue remain relentless in tracking, tracing, apprehending and prosecuting GBVF perpetrators,” he said.
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Mass Arrests During the Festive Season
Meanwhile, SAPS arrested 244,951 individuals over the festive season as part of intensified crime-fighting operations to protect communities, holidaymakers, and tourists.
The Safer Festive Season Operations, which ran from 11 October 2024 to 31 January 2025, resulted in 9,908 convictions for crimes including murder, rape, armed robbery, housebreaking, and car hijacking.
Masemola highlighted the impact of these operations, confirming that 2,198 illegal firearms were seized, including 1,731 handguns, 154 homemade guns, 211 rifles, and 102 shotguns, with most confiscations occurring in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape.
“Firearms remain a big problem in South Africa as most serious and violent crimes, including murders, were committed with the use of a firearm,” he said.
Additionally, 37,658 rounds of ammunition and 1,767 explosives linked to illegal mining and cash-in-transit robberies were recovered. Police also seized R4 million in cash, 16,293 stolen cell phones, and 960 hijacked vehicles.
“Further to that, over 78,000 licensed liquor premises compliance inspections were executed together with more than 12,000 compliance inspections at firearm dealers and private security premises. A total of 6,547 unlicensed liquor premises were shut down throughout the country during this period.”
During the operation, SAPS conducted over two million patrols, 4,600 roadblocks, and 620,000 stop-and-search operations, with more than two million individuals searched nationwide.
Masemola reaffirmed SAPS’s dedication to dismantling organised crime and tackling serious and violent offences, ensuring the safety and security of all South Africans.
“Through intelligence and collaboration with various units within the SAPS, identified crime threats were addressed through conventional methods to identify, neutralise, dislodge, dismantle and take down organised crime syndicates,” he said.
“Crime intelligence continuously monitored various organised crime threats which include theft of motor vehicles, kidnappings for extortion, cash-in-transit armed robberies, critical infrastructure, illegal mining and stock theft – to mention but a few of other key crime categories.”
