Police killings reach record high

Deaths have jumped 72% in five years to a record 670, says a report from the police watchdog. The increase coincides with damning revelations at the Madlanga Commission about top-level chaos. By Greg Ardé

- Greg Ardé

A total of 670 people were killed by members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and metro police last year, the highest number since the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) started recording such deaths in 1997.

The increase has been described as “massive” and an indictment of a rudderless police force beset by factionalism.

The Ipid report, released unofficially to members of Parliament last month but not yet formally submitted to the legislature, shows an alarming increase in killings by police, especially in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

The report emerges against the backdrop of a nation seized by a public soap opera in Parliament that has exposed SAPS management as riven by divisions and criminal and political interference in policing.

Damning evidence has been aired before the Madlanga Commission and the ad hoc parliamentary committee investigating allegations made by the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

This has raised questions among experts about whether the surge in police brutality points to a rise in rogue, heavy-handed policing — or to a more forceful police response beginning to outpace organised crime networks.

Ipid’s report makes for chilling reading. Nationally, deaths at the hands of the police have increased from 388 in 2020/21 to 670 in 2024/25, an increase of 72%. Except for one year (2021/22), the national total has risen consistently: 388, 466, 448, 577, 670.