Traffic offences drive 12.4% rise in Zimbabwe's recorded crime rate

The agency said the national rate climbed from about 2,650 offences per 100,000 people in the first quarter to about 2,980 in the second. That is roughly 41 percent higher than a year earlier and above the previous peak recorded in the final quarter of 2025.

Non-injurious traffic violations made up nearly seven in ten of all recorded offences. The Granite Post's calculation from ZIMSTAT's tables shows that traffic cases account for about nine-tenths of the quarter's increase. All other offences combined rose only slightly.

Theft and burglary fell while homicides rose

Police recorded fewer thefts, assaults and threats, burglaries and sexual violence offences than in the first quarter. Intentional homicides moved the other way, rising from 306 to 371. ZIMSTAT does not explain the change, and the numbers are small enough that quarterly swings need cautious reading.

ZIMSTAT's highlights chart lists a rise in "drug offences". The category is broad. Nearly four in five of its cases were unlawful acts involving alcohol, tobacco or other controlled substances. Offences involving controlled drugs or precursors, the narrower grouping, fell compared with the first quarter.

Harare's rate is more than double the national figure

Harare accounted for just over a third of recorded offences, with a rate more than twice the national average. Bulawayo, Masvingo and Matabeleland South also exceeded it.

ZIMSTAT says its figures exclude crimes not reported to police. Provincial gaps therefore also reflect how actively traffic laws are enforced and how offences are recorded, and they do not by themselves show greater exposure to violent crime.

The report's text cites a national total about 8,000 offences higher than its main table. The table's figures add up and match the published rate, so the Granite Post has used them. The report does not explain the difference.

It also does not say why recorded traffic violations rose so sharply. The cause could be more offences, more roadblocks and enforcement, or changes in recording. Police records alone cannot settle that, and the answer matters for how the national figure is read.