{"id":874813,"date":"2026-09-13T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=874813"},"modified":"2026-09-11T18:13:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:13:59","slug":"town-in-millionaire-municipality-becomes-the-hijacking-capital-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/874813\/town-in-millionaire-municipality-becomes-the-hijacking-capital-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Town in millionaire municipality becomes the hijacking capital in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The number of hijackings has seen a decline over the past year, but one town in the country\u2019s richest municipality has emerged as the country\u2019s biggest hijacking hotspot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest quarterly crime statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS), Delft in Cape Town recorded the highest number of hijackings in South Africa over the 2025\/26 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,  figures also show a notable difference between the national trend and developments in several concentrated crime hotspots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carjacking declined in every quarter of the 2025\/26 financial year compared with the same periods a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cases fell by 14.4% in the first quarter, 12.3% in the second, 8.1% in the third and 20.4% in the final quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, the number of carjackings fell from 4,533 cases between January and March 2025 to 3,609 cases during the same period in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the decline, Gauteng remained the centre of South Africa\u2019s carjacking problem, accounting for more than half of all reported cases. The province’s share ranged between 55% and 57.6% during the financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal followed, together with Gauteng accounting for more than 80% of all carjackings recorded in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when the numbers are examined at the police station level for the full year, Delft stands out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cape Town precinct recorded 249 carjackings between April 2025 and March 2026, making it the worst-performing precinct in the country over the four quarters combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delft recorded 68 cases in the first quarter, followed by 60 in the second, 60 in the third and 61 in the fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While other major hotspots experienced sharp increases or declines, Delft recorded at least 60 carjackings in every quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town is a large, densely populated residential area on the Cape Flats, approximately 26 kilometres from Cape Town’s central business district and close to Cape Town International Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hotspots<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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However, Delft also falls within the City of Cape Town, South Africa’s richest metropolitan municipality and one of Africa’s leading wealth hubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Town is home to thousands of US-dollar millionaires and has become a major destination for wealthy South Africans relocating from other parts of the country, as well as for foreign buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Henley & Partners, Cape Town is home to between 7,200 and 8,500 resident US dollar millionaires (individuals with net investable assets of $1 million or R18 million or more).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Johannesburg has more millionaires overall, the Africa Wealth Report confirms that Cape Town has emerged as the continent’s leader in centi-millionaires (individuals worth $100 million or more).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city also has some of the most expensive residential property in Africa, especially along the Atlantic Seaboard and in areas such as Clifton, Bantry Bay and Camps Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the wealth within the municipality does not extend to areas such as Delft, where dense residential neighbourhoods and busy roads pose very different challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delft was not alone among Cape Town precincts. Lingelethu-West, which serves part of the greater Khayelitsha area, recorded 234 carjackings during the year, while Nyanga recorded 217.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, the three Cape Town precincts accounted for 700 carjackings during the 2025\/26 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra in Johannesburg followed with 196 cases, becoming the country’s worst carjacking precinct during the final quarter, after cases surged from 31 to 63 year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alberton recorded 170 cases for the year, while Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal recorded 169.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figures show that South Africa’s overall carjacking statistics are moving in the right direction. However, the crime remains heavily concentrated in a relatively small number of areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below shows the hijacking hotspots in South Africa, ranked by total combined cases across Q1 (April 2025 ) to Q4 (March 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precinct \/ Station<\/th>District & Province<\/th>Q1
2025\/26<\/th>		Q2 2025\/26<\/th>Q3 2025\/26<\/th>Q4 2025\/26<\/th>Total cases<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Delft<\/strong><\/td>City of Cape Town, WC<\/td>68<\/strong><\/td>60<\/strong><\/td>60<\/strong><\/td>61<\/strong><\/td>249<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Lingelethu-West<\/strong><\/td>City of Cape Town, WC<\/td>63<\/strong><\/td>65<\/strong><\/td>65<\/strong><\/td>41<\/strong><\/td>234<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Nyanga<\/strong><\/td>City of Cape Town, WC<\/td>48<\/strong><\/td>67<\/strong><\/td>54<\/strong><\/td>48<\/strong><\/td>217<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Alexandra<\/strong><\/td>Johannesburg, GP<\/td>41<\/strong><\/td>61<\/strong><\/td>31<\/strong><\/td>63<\/strong><\/td>196<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Harare<\/strong><\/td>City of Cape Town, WC<\/td>60<\/strong><\/td>46<\/strong><\/td>32<\/strong><\/td>37<\/strong><\/td>175<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Alberton<\/strong><\/td>Ekurhuleni, GP<\/td>66<\/strong><\/td>39<\/strong><\/td>35<\/strong><\/td>30<\/strong><\/td>170<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Umlazi<\/strong><\/td>eThekwini, KZN<\/td>60<\/strong><\/td>43<\/strong><\/td>38<\/strong><\/td>28<\/strong><\/td>169<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Midrand<\/strong><\/td>Johannesburg, GP<\/td>55<\/strong><\/td>42<\/strong><\/td>34<\/strong><\/td>31<\/strong><\/td>162<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photos of Delft<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The number of hijackings has seen a decline over the past year, but one town in the country\u2019s richest municipality has emerged as the country\u2019s biggest hijacking hotspot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":874861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2099106083948126386","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2204278163725916","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26470,853,17501],"class_list":["post-874813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-delft","tag-south-africa","tag-the-south-african-police-service-saps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874813"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":874874,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874813\/revisions\/874874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}