Cape Town precinct knocks Durban rival off the top of South Africa’s murder rankings
Mfuleni, in the City of Cape Town, has officially displaced KwaZulu-Natal’s Inanda as the South Africa’s deadliest policing area.
Mfuleni police station, in the Western Cape, recorded 73 murders between April and June 2026, claiming the top spot in the national homicide rankings.
This is according to official first-quarter crime statistics for 2026-2027 released by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Mfuleni police station in Cape Town records five-year rise in killings
The shift reflects a steady, multi-year escalation for Mfuleni, where quarterly homicides climbed progressively from 40 in 2022 to 58 in 2024, 72 in 2025, and 73 in 2026.
By contrast, Inanda in eThekwini recorded a 19.2% decrease in murders, dropping from 78 to 63 victims. Despite that reduction, Inanda remained the nation’s primary hotspot for overall contact crime, logging 1 056 violent incidents and 100 reported rapes.
Although Mfuleni experienced a 12.2% drop in total contact crime down to 975 cases and a 34.5% decline in aggravated robbery, extreme violence remains stubborn. Guns continue to drive lethal bloodshed across the Western Cape, accounting for 663 of the province’s 1 071 murder victims.
Provincial figures also indicate gang violence was responsible for 217 murders during the quarter, representing the vast majority of gang-related homicides nationally.
Western Cape dominates South Africa’s deadliest homicide hotspots
Mfuleni’s new ranking underscores a heavy geographic clustering of lethal violence across the Mother City. Police precincts within the City of Cape Town accounted for five of the six highest murder totals nationwide during the three-month period, with Nyanga recording 56 killings, Philippi East and Delft logging 53 each, and Harare registering 49.
This acute concentration comes despite broader gains across the province and the country. Total murders in the Western Cape decreased by 6.7% from 1 148 to 1 071, while South Africa as a whole saw homicides fall 5.9% to 5 427.
Nevertheless, the Western Cape murder ratio stands at 13.9 per 100 000 residents, remaining well above the national ratio of 8.5 per 100 000.
Deadliest Police Precincts for Murder in South Africa (April to June)
| National Rank | Police Station | District & Province | April–June 2025 | April–June 2026 | Count Diff | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mfuleni | City of Cape Town, Western Cape | 72 | 73 | +1 | +1.4% |
| 2 | Inanda | eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal | 78 | 63 | -15 | -19.2% |
| 3 | Nyanga | City of Cape Town, Western Cape | 58 | 56 | -2 | -3.4% |
| 4 | Philippi East | City of Cape Town, Western Cape | 54 | 53 | -1 | -1.9% |
| 5 | Delft | City of Cape Town, Western Cape | 70 | 53 | -17 | -24.3% |
| 6 | Harare | City of Cape Town, Western Cape | 54 | 49 | -5 | -9.3% |