Developing story: these figures come from a police briefing reported on Monday and have not yet been confirmed against an official police statement.
Police say 20 political representatives, party members and supporters have been murdered and that 139 election-related criminal cases have been opened ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, Deputy National Commissioner for Policing and chair of the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS), gave the figures at a security briefing in Tshwane, according to reports. Everyone named in these cases is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The figures
- 20 murders of political representatives, party members and supporters, with seven arrests.
- 139 election-related criminal cases: 48 arrests, 69 cases under investigation, eight dockets referred to the Senior Public Prosecutor and 25 enrolled in court.
- 72 of the cases are Electoral Act offences, with 22 arrests.
- By province, the political murders are in Gauteng (7), KwaZulu-Natal (6), Western Cape (3), Eastern Cape (2), Free State (1) and North West (1).
The reported categories overlap and do not add up to 139, so they should be read as separate measures rather than a single breakdown.
Warnings to would-be offenders
Mosikili said: "No individual or organisation has the right to obstruct voting stations." Police would respond decisively against any such conduct, according to the reports.
Background
At an earlier NATJOINTS briefing in August, Mosikili said the Political Killings Task Team, established in 2018, had arrested more than 400 suspects, including more than 180 alleged hitmen. Seven suspects had been arrested in the 2026 cases at that stage, Mosikili said.
What we do not yet know
- How the 20 political murders relate to a separate figure of 10 murder cases in broader crime figures, which was not clarified.
- Whether the police have published the figures in an official statement.
- The motives in each case, which remain under investigation.
