{"id":95402,"date":"2026-02-06T19:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season"},"modified":"2026-02-06T20:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:08:30","slug":"saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season","title":{"rendered":"SAPS Arrests 230000 Suspects Nationwide During Festive Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola briefed the media in Pretoria on Friday on the South African Police Service (SAPS) festive season operations.<\/p>\n<p>During this period, over 230,000 suspects linked to various crimes were arrested nationwide. Police revealed that more than 4,000 people were arrested for murder and attempted murder.<\/p>\n<p>Masemola stated that only about 2,700 of those arrested have so far been convicted of various offences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The majority of those arrested during this festive period were those arrested for being in possession of drugs, bringing the total of those arrested for drug possession to 33,397 suspects,&#8221; Masemola said. &#8220;A total of 4,281 drug dealers were also arrested during this period.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola briefed the media in Pretoria on Friday on the South African Police Service (SAPS) festive season operations. During this period, over 230,000 suspects linked to various crimes were arrested nationwide. Police revealed that more than 4,000 people were arrested for murder and attempted murder. Masemola stated that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SAPS Arrests 230000 Suspects Nationwide During Festive Season - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola briefed the media in Pretoria on Friday on the South African Police Service ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SAPS Arrests 230000 Suspects Nationwide During Festive Season\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola briefed the media in Pretoria on Friday on the South African Police Service ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-06T19:35:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-06T20:08:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770395794.743957.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"467\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"252\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"SAPS Arrests 230000 Suspects Nationwide During Festive Season\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-06T19:35:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-06T20:08:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season\"},\"wordCount\":124,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770395794.743957.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/saps-arrests-230000-suspects-nationwide-during-festive-season\",\"name\":\"SAPS Arrests 230000 Suspects Nationwide During Festive Season - 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