President Cyril Ramaphosa officiated at the annual SAPS National Commemoration Day on Sunday, 6 September 2026, at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, honouring 12 police officers who died in the line of duty between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026. The Presidency’s events calendar listed the ceremony from 10h00 to 12h00, with SAnews and Eyewitness News corroborating both the presidential attendance and the tribute figure.
The annual commemoration, held on the first Sunday of September, pays tribute to officers who died while serving in the preceding 12 months. According to Eyewitness News reporters at the Union Buildings, the names of the 12 fallen members were etched into the official SAPS memorial wall during the ceremony.
IOL reported that Ramaphosa used the occasion to denounce violence against police as an assault on the constitutional order.
When criminals target a police officer, they are attacking the integrity of the State, the rule of law and the constitutional order,
Ramaphosa said, as reported by IOL.
The President’s remarks carry particular weight on the Cape Flats, where officers stationed in Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Manenberg, and Bishop Lavis confront some of the country’s highest violent crime rates daily. Officers in these areas routinely face armed suspects while responding to gang-related callouts, making the annual commemoration a stark reminder of the risks carried by local policing units.
The September ceremony is separate from National Police Day on 27 January, which Cabinet approved in 2005 to mark the 1995 establishment of SAPS. The January date celebrates the service broadly, while the September event is reserved for honouring those who died in uniform.
The identities of all 12 officers have not been independently cross-verified across at least two sources, and details reported by SAnews about family circumstances — including a pregnant widow and infant twins — remain unconfirmed by other outlets. The claim that the names were added to the memorial wall is reported by Eyewitness News but has not been independently corroborated in other retrieved reports.
It remains unknown whether any of the 12 honoured officers served at Western Cape stations. Cape Flats News journalist Nadia Adams will check with SAPS Western Cape on Monday, 8 September, for a provincial breakdown of the casualties and any local memorial arrangements planned for the affected families.