More than 5 200 cases of misconduct were registered against the police over the 2025/2026 financial year. The police watchdog, IPID, says the main case drivers continue to be assault and torture, with nearly 3 470 of these types of cases registered.
More than 600 cases were also registered for the discharging of an official firearm and over 460 for death due to police action. The four hotspot provinces are the Western Cape with just over 900 cases, followed closely by Gauteng, and then KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, which both have around 720 cases.
Regarding Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF), at least 332 cases were reported. IPID says over 36% of the cases were referrals which were mainly domestic violence, while 116 were acts of rape by a police officer.
It notes that there has been an increase in rape cases against officers. There were 21 more cases when compared to the 2024/2025 period. Of the 116 rape cases, just over 70 were against on-duty officers.
