Scratchpad!
Overview of cases reported in 2024
The link take you to a graphic showing how cases reported to SAPS in 2024 had progressed across the criminal justice system by May 9, 2025. The width of the interacting lines is proportional to the number of cases of that crime type between steps. The largest category of crime type is referred to as 'small cats'. This category is a bucket of all charges where fewer than 10 000 charges were recorded.
Interactive graph of criminal justice system activity.
The congestion on the above plot at the right hand side makes it necessary to provide a second plot which details the process of casesd once they have been enrolled in court. The links are coloured according to the crime type.
Detail of outcomes
Time series
The "weakness" of using 2024 data is that a relatively high proportion of cases reported to SAPS in 2024 will not been concluded by early May 2025. As it stands 21.2% of 2024 cases enrolled in court were still 'open'. Between 2020 and 2023 the proportion of 'open' cases ranges from a start of 1.4% to 6.7% in 2023. The 21.2% can thus be expected to be decline signifcantly in the coming years. However the earlier data alos sshow that it is most likely that many of the open cases will be closed by being struck off the roll. Between 2020 and 2023 the proportion of cases that were 'open' or had been 'withrawn' or 'struck off the roll' was 65.1%, 64.5%, 64.7% and 65.6% respectively. It is conjectured that a similar proportion (65%) of 2024 cases will ultimately be struck off the roll. Based on this it can be expected that 4.5% of cases will progress from 'open' to 'withdrawn/struck off the roll' resulting in the 21.2% dropping to 16.7%. In the coming years another 10% of the 'open cases' will be resolved by other means (sentence, diversion etc.)