‘Police would not do anything’: SA households turn away from reporting break-ins

Police

Johannesburg – More than half of South African households affected by housebreaking did not report the crime to police in 2025/26, with many victims saying they believed the police would not take action.

The latest Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey (GPSJS) released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) shows that housebreaking remained the most common household crime in the country, with an estimated 1.5 million incidents recorded during the year. The incidents affected about 5.3% of households.

The reluctance to report housebreaking is largely linked to victims’ lack of confidence that police will act on their complaints.

Stats SA’s latest figures show that only about 48% of households affected by housebreaking reported their cases to police, an improvement of 4.8 percentage points from the previous year. However, this still means that more than half of affected households did not report the crime.

The latest findings build on concerns highlighted in the previous GPSJS. In the 2024/25 survey, only 43.4% of households affected by housebreaking reported some or all incidents to police. Stats SA found that the leading reason for non-reporting was that victims believed police could do nothing because of a lack of evidence, while 21% said police “would not do anything about it.”

The 2025/26 findings suggest that housebreaking continues to be a major security concern despite the improved reporting rate. Stats SA said the latest survey provides a broader picture of crime than police records alone because it captures crimes that are never officially reported.

The survey also found that South Africans are increasingly taking measures to protect themselves. The proportion of people who took some action to guard against crime rose from 43.3% in 2024/25 to 46.6% in 2025/26.

The most common precaution was limiting walking to safer hours, followed by installing physical security measures such as burglar doors.

The trend as a growing trust gap between communities and law enforcement, noting that many victims are choosing not to report crimes because they do not believe authorities will act.

The figures underline the challenge facing law enforcement: reported crime statistics may not fully reflect the scale of criminal activity when large numbers of victims choose not to approach police.

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