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Briefing Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police on Thursday, Major General Norman Sekhukhune announced that children were charged in 736 murder cases in the last financial year.
Sekhukhune was joined by Minister of Police Bheki Cele, national police commissioner General Khehla Sitole, Statistician General Risenga Maluleke and Hawks head Dr Godfrey Lebaya.
It was earlier reported that the number of murders in the country had increased from 20 336 in the 2017/18 financial year, to 21 022 in the 2018/19 year - an increase of 3.4%.
Dealing specifically with instances of child victims of murder, Sekhukhune said "...the murder of children that we reported in the current financial year, it's 1 014. That is 29 cases more than the previous financial year".
"One thing, that maybe we need to mention, in terms of the murders that are committed against children, is that when we looked at the number of crimes of children in conflict with the law, we have observed that some of these murders against children are committed by other children themselves.
"We have the number where we show the murders that have [allegedly] been committed by children in the current financial year was 736.
"That is instances where the children were the [alleged] perpetrators and not the victims," said Sekhukhune.
Children are, as a category, also increasingly victims of contact crimes according to the latest crime statistics.
News24 earlier reported that the number of women who were murdered decreased by 5.4%. However, the number of children who were murdered increased.
There were 1 014 children murdered in the 2018/19 financial year - a 2.9% increase from 985 murders. There was also an increase of sexual offences against children - up from last year's 23 488, to this year's 24 387.
Attempted murders against children also increased from 1 059, to 1 184 in the 2018/19 financial year - an increase of 11.8%.
