According to the SAPS, a total of 178 suspects, aged between 20 and 62, were sentenced to imprisonment for various serious crimes.

“The Convictions included house robbery, kidnapping, possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition, shoplifting, malicious damage to property, assault, house breaking and theft, common robbery, assault GBH, illegal immigrant theft, rape, possession of suspected stolen property and culpable homicide,” the SAPS said in a statement.

The Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units also recorded notable successes, securing 44 life sentences and a combined 637 years of imprisonment against 68 accused for crimes against women and children during the three months period.

The High Court on 8 September 2025, sentenced two accused aged 25 years, for their roles in terrorizing communities in Germiston, Elsburg, Vosloorus and Zonkizizwe.

“The suspects were sentenced for house robbery, rape, kidnapping, possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition. The accused were both sentenced to 13 life imprisonments for rape, 150 years for robbery and housebreaking (10 counts of 15 years), 18 years for kidnapping (6 counts of 3 years), 5 years for possession of an unlicensed firearm, and 3 years for possession of ammunition,” the SAPS said.

Some of the sentences will run concurrently, resulting in an effective 13 life sentences and 165 years imprisonment for each accused.

In a separate case, a 36-year-old man was sentenced to two life terms for two counts of murder, three years for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH), and eight years for attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances.

The sentences will run concurrently, and the offender was declared unfit to possess a firearm.

He was found guilty on 11 August 2025 by the Pretoria High Court following a case reported at SAPS Lyttelton on 28 January 2025.

The Gauteng Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni, has commended the detectives for their dedication and tireless efforts in securing these convictions.

“This achievement underscores the importance of collaboration between law enforcement agencies and the community in driving crime reduction initiatives forward,” Mthombeni said.

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During a media briefing to outline progress and take stock of milestones achieved during the first quarter of financial year 2024/2025, he said the case load figures quoted were from the end of the last financial year. Of those cases, nearly 12 000 accused people were serving before various courts while nearly 1 800 were receiving attention by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in order to decide on prosecution or otherwise.

Lebeya said that the DPCI has made “significant inroads in apprehending individuals… thus ensuring accountability and justice for the victims”.

The arrested suspects are alleged to have been involved in crimes including serious corruption; fraud; money laundering; police killings; cash-in-transit robberies; illegal mining; damage to essential infrastructure and crimes against the State.

With regard to first quarter 2024/25 statistics (April to June), a total number of 673 suspects, representing 637 natural persons and 36 juristic persons, were secured before various courts in the country.

“Of the 673 suspects, the Serious Organised Crime Investigation secured 370, the Serious Commercial Crime Investigation secured 234, while the Serious Corruption Investigation secured 69 suspects.

“Most of the arrests were effected in Gauteng province with 167; KwaZulu-Natal province with 114; North West province with 92; Mpumalanga province with 57 and Eastern Cape province with 56 suspects,” Lebeya said.

“During these arrests, 68 firearms and 1 797 rounds of ammunition were seized. Three clandestine drug laboratories were dismantled in Gauteng province with a total value of R16 million.”

The DPCI head added that not only were arrests made, convictions were secured against some 506 accused.

“Of these convictions, 262 accused persons, inclusive of 12 juristic persons, were sentenced, while the balance of 244 convicts, inclusive of 15 juristic persons, are to be sentenced on dates after the quarter under review. Of the 262 sentenced natural persons, 173 are South Africans while 77 are foreign nationals.

“To ensure that crime does not pay, 77 court orders were granted in relation to the assets associated with crime. These make the total recorded successes on arrests, convictions and attachment of assets to 1256,” he said.

Lebeya assured South Africans the Hawks are committed to fulfilling their mandate of “investigating, preventing and combating national priority offences”.

He added that “DPCI recapitulates its commitment to work diligently to address the evolving threat and bring those who engage in criminality to justice.” DPCI will “continue to enforce the law of the Republic without fear, favour or prejudice.”

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