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Police station precinct

Gowan Lea

umzimkhulu · harry gwala · KwaZulu-Natal

Latest year 2025/2621 financial years of records

Recorded crime, 2025/26

195

−15.2%(−35) decreased. Compared with the previous financial year.

Across the 17 community-reported serious crime categories.

Years of data

21

2005/06 to 2025/26. The South African Police Service reports crime by financial year, which runs from 1 April to 31 March. 2024/25 therefore covers 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Area snapshot

The 2025/26 total compared with this precinct's own history. Averages skip years the source does not provide rather than treating them as zero.

2025/26Latest financial year
195
5-year average2021/22–2025/26
214
10-year average2016/17–2025/26
233
Historical high2009/10
389
Historical low2022/23
192

The latest figure sits between the historical low of 192 and the historical high of 389.

What the figures show

Plain-English statements generated from the calculations on this page. They describe what was recorded and nothing beyond it.

  • Recorded crime decreased 15.2% year-on-year, from 230 in 2024/25 to 195 in 2025/26.
  • The latest figure is 16.3% below the ten-year average of 233.
  • Attempted murder increased +84.6% while murder decreased −72.7%.

Crime profile

Types of recorded crime that make up this precinct's latest-year total. This is a composition of what was recorded, not a judgement of how dangerous the area is.

Shares are of the 195 recorded crimes across the 17 community-reported serious crime categories. Selecting a category focuses the historical chart on that grouping. How this total is defined

Historical context

Recorded crime over the last 5 years, 10 years, or the full available series. Choose a category to match the profile above.

The total_recorded_crime aggregate.

What's changing

Categories with the largest movements between 2024/25 and 2025/26. A change is only listed when it is large enough in both absolute and proportional terms.

Recorded more often

  1. Attempted murder13 → 24+84.6% increased. Compared with the previous financial year.
  2. Common assault14 → 19+35.7% increased. Compared with the previous financial year.

Recorded less often

  1. Murder11 → 3−72.7% decreased. Compared with the previous financial year.
  2. Aggravated robbery12 → 6−50.0% decreased. Compared with the previous financial year.
  3. Stock theft36 → 23−36.1% decreased. Compared with the previous financial year.
  4. Assault (GBH)51 → 37−27.5% decreased. Compared with the previous financial year.

Crime history

Highest and lowest recorded years for Gowan Lea, and the largest comparable year-on-year movements in the dataset.

Highest recorded year
2009/10 — 389 incidents
Lowest recorded year
2022/23 — 192 incidents
Largest year-on-year increase
2019/20 — +42.7%
Largest year-on-year decrease
2022/23 — −20.3%

Unusual movements

The latest year-on-year change compared with this precinct's own earlier comparable movements, not with a national ranking.

Latest movement · recorded crime

Within the historical range

The −15.2% movement in 2025/26 sits within the range of earlier comparable year-on-year changes for this series.

  • MurderLargest recorded decrease

    The −72.7% fall in 2025/26 is larger than every earlier comparable annual decrease in this series.

Nearby stations

Geographic context only. CrimeMap SA does not assign a suburb to an official precinct.

Other police stations near Gowan Lea. Distances are from the station coordinates in the source file. A suburb or neighbourhood is not necessarily the same as a police precinct.

Crime detected through police action

Reported separately because these figures largely reflect how much policing activity took place, not how much crime was reported by the public. They are not part of the total above.

2025/26

Total detected through police action13+8.3% increased. Compared with the previous financial year.

Source and methodology

These are crimes recorded by police in the Gowan Lea precinct, not all crime that occurred there. Cases that were never reported do not appear, and reporting rates differ between areas and between categories.
Figures are counts, not rates. The source data contains no population figure for a precinct, so CrimeMap SA cannot show crime per 100,000 people and does not estimate one. A precinct covering a dense area will usually record more of everything.
Precinct boundaries change over time as stations are opened, closed or redrawn. A large movement in a single year can reflect a boundary change rather than a change in recorded crime.

Figures are crimes recorded by the South African Police Service. Read the full methodology.

Where this precinct is

The source file has a point for the police station, not an official precinct outline. Nearby stations are shown for context.

Open the national map

Compare this area with another

Put Gowan Lea side by side with up to two other precincts on the same measures.

Open the comparison