President Cyril Ramaphosa and Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia led the SAPS National Commemoration Day on Sunday, 6 September 2026, at the SAPS Memorial Site 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 annual ceremony, held on the first Sunday of September, saw the names of the 12 fallen officers engraved at the memorial site as a permanent tribute. The 2026 roll of honour included Constable Gift Mota, Sergeant Sello Raymond Sema, Sergeant Matome Rapetsoa, Sergeant Simon Masenye, Constable Mwazkhe Khoza, Warrant Officer Mosesi Moswana, Constable Moselalelelo Montja, Constable George Hlekiso, Sergeant Sanele Dlamini, Warrant Officer Vuyisile Sintwa, Constable Sharon Hlangoane, and Sergeant Lawrence Mtsweni.
President Ramaphosa, addressing the gathering, said the day was about remembering the officers as people rather than numbers. “Today we remember them not as statistics, but as sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, colleagues and friends, who went to work to protect their fellow South Africans and never returned home,” Ramaphosa said, according to SAnews.
Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia echoed the president’s remarks, focusing on the families left behind. “We remember their lives. We remember the families who loved them and now live with their unbearable loss,” Cachalia said at the ceremony. He stressed that support for bereaved families must extend beyond the memorial. “Our commitment must continue in the practical support we provide in benefits, counselling, welfare and, importantly, in the education of their children.”
Ramaphosa highlighted the SAPS Education Trust (SAPSET), which has supported 2,215 children of fallen officers and raised more than R25 million since 2010. He described the commemoration as a national covenant of remembrance, accountability, and renewal, and acknowledged that no ceremony or pension could truly compensate for a lost parent or partner.
The ceremony carries particular weight for communities across the Cape Flats and the Western Cape, where officers routinely face high-risk conditions and where families of fallen police members often struggle to access support long after the official mourning period ends. Police safety has been a persistent concern nationally, with officers targeted both on and off duty in incidents ranging from ambushes to domestic violence-related murders.
The exact circumstances of how each of the 12 named officers died have not been detailed in the official statements released on 6 September. IOL reported that the names of fallen officers are engraved at the SAPS Memorial Site as a permanent tribute, consistent with the annual tradition.
What remains unknown are the specific incidents and locations in which each officer lost their life, as these details were not included in the Presidency’s release or the SAnews reports. This article will be updated once SAPS provides case-by-case information on the circumstances of each death.