The South African Police Service (SAPS) today released crime statistics for the 2013/14 financial year, which show a range of increases and decreases in certain crime categories.
For the year under review, there was an increase in murder, attempted murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Overall, murder decreased by 9.2% over the past 10 years (2004/05 to 2013/14), but showed an increase of 5% in the 2013/14 financial year.
This means 17 068 people were murdered in SA last year.
Murder went up in all provinces, except in the Free State. Gauteng recorded an increase of 11.2%.
“We are very concerned about this trend,” said National Police Commissioner Riyah Phiyega on Friday.
She once again called on society to work very closely with police to reduce the scourge.
Attempted murder also went up by 4.6%, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm increased by 1.5% and robbery with aggravated circumstances was up by 12.7%.
Overall, attempted murder had decreased by 30.2% over the past 10 years.
Common assault was reported to be down by 3.3% and sexual offences decreased by 5.6%, with rape and sexual assault dropping by 6.3%.
The Eastern Cape recorded the highest number of rapes.
“These are crimes where police arrive after the fact and which happen behind closed doors,” Phiyega said, adding that police will continue to increase their visibility in communities.
House robberies increase
Trio crimes, which are crimes relating to personal safety and business, such as house robbery, business robbery and carjacking – remained stubborn, as they increased by 10.8%.
Carjackings increased by 12.3%, truck hijackings recorded a 12.1% increase, robbery recorded a 13.7% increase, and robbery in residential areas increased by 7.4%.
Property related crimes increased by 1.7% in the past five years (2009-2013) but reduced by 0.2% during the past financial year.
Bank robberies saw a decrease of 77.4% over a five-year period, but increased from seven incidents in 2012/13 to 21 in 2013/14.
SAPS hoped that the integrated partnerships with businesses and the banking sector will go a long way to address these crimes.
The robbery of cash-in-transit vehicles stabilised at 145 incidents in the reporting period. On the other hand, common robbery went up by 0.6%.
Other serious crime reduced by 1.4% during the reporting period.
Drug-related crimes increased by 26.1% in the past financial year, while driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs decreased by 1.8% in the past year; and by 133.1% over the past 10 years.
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko lamented the levels of violent crime.
“If you look at the five or 10-year trends, combined with the year under review, contact crime is a permanent feature,” he said.
He said when levels of poverty and unemployment are so high, crime statistics are bound to rise.
He also attributed this to the high social unrest as well as drug abuse in communities.
“The prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse in SA is very concerning. In most areas of our communities, we find more taverns than schools and churches combined,” he said, adding that a broader solution needs to be found.
“There is a need to regenerate the morality in our society, which will help us in the fight against crime.”
This “domino effect” was also highlighted by Phiyega, who said society can and must play a pivotal role in fighting crime.
A societal responsibility
Currently, South Africa has one police officer for every 346 South Africans.
“All of us need to make a contribution in reducing crime and fighting corruption in our communities,” Minister Nhleko reiterated in his opening statement.
He said in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the focus will be on strengthening the criminal justice system, professionalising the police as well as building safety.
The statistics for this reporting period, according to Minister Nhleko, are based on raw figures.
These figures are also audited by the Auditor General, working in conjunction with Stats SA.
This, Minister Nhleko said, was done to address concerns about the reliability of the statistics, which were raised last year.
Last year, the Institute for Security Studies said the crime statistics police released contained miscalculations and downplayed the rate of violent crimes.
Police have defended their calculations, saying they based them on new population estimates from the 2011 Census results.
Source: – SAnews.gov.za
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Pretoria – Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko says generally, alcohol and drug abuse, were the major contributing factors to the increase in reported cases of murder and attempted murder in South Africa.
Releasing the annual 2013/14 Crime Statistics in Pretoria, on Friday, the Minister said alcohol and drug abuse were contributing factors to all sorts of crimes committed in the country.
Reported cases of murder have increased by 5% in the 2013/14 financial year as compared to the previous year.
16 259 murders cases were reported during the 2012/13 financial year, but the number increased to 17 068 in the 2013/14 financial year.
National Police Commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, said four provinces out of nine, in South Africa have contributed to the overall increase in murder.
“Gauteng, Northern Cape, Western Cape and Eastern Cape are the provinces that showed an increase in murder. Kwa-Zulu Natal, Free State, Mpumalanga and North West are the only provinces that recorded a decrease in murder,” Phiyega said.
Western Cape Province showed the highest increase in murder by 12.8%, from 2 580 in 2012/13 to 2 909 in 2013/14. It is followed by Gauteng by 11.2%, from 2 997 in 2012/13 to 3 333 in 2013/14 financial year.
According to Phiyega, Mpumalanga is leading in the decrease of reported murder cases, with a reduction of 16.4%, followed by Free State with a reduction of 7.5%, from 1023 in 2012/13 to 946 in 2013/14.
She urged citizens to report all sorts of crimes to the police, to help in a reduction of overall crime.
“Most of the crimes that are not reported, like common assault, are the ones that occur between people who are known to one another, and it can start as common assault but later lead to attempted murder or murder,” Phiyega said.
On statistics for attempted murder, Phiyega said Free State was the only province that recorded a decrease in attempted murder.
“All other eight provinces have shown an increase in attempted murder,” said Phiyega.
Free State province recorded 911 cases of attempted murder in 2013/14, which showed a 3.8% decrease from 947 cases of murder that were reported in 2012/13.
A leading province in attempted murder was North West with 17.5% from 918 in 2012/13 to 1 079 in 2013/14, followed by Northern Cape with 11.8% from 543 in 2012/13 to 607 in 2013/14. Gauteng showed an increase of 8.1% from 3 609 in 2012/13 to 3 901 in 2013/14.
Source: – SAnews.gov.za
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Releasing the crime statistics for the 2013/14 financial year in Pretoria on Friday, Phiyega said sexual offences had decreased by 5.6 %.Pretoria – South Africa has seen a decrease in sexual offences crimes, National Police Commissioner General Riah Phiyega has announced.
“This shows good performance from the organisation,” she said.
Phiyega said all the provinces had seen a decrease in this crime, except for the Eastern Cape which was experiencing challenges, especially regarding crimes against old people. “We do believe that this is drug-related.”
The Eastern Cape has experienced an increase in sexual offences of 3.4%.
Phiyega also announced an overall decrease of 6.3% of all rape crimes in the country.
There was also an overall decrease of 4.9% in sexual assault crimes in the country with Limpopo experiencing a 4.8% decrease, KwaZulu-Natal declining by 3.7%, North West declining by 19.8% and the Free State decreased by 5.2%.
The Western Cape increased by 0.2%, Mpumalanga went up by 0.4% and the Northern Cape increased by 3.7 % on reported sexual assault crimes.
She said the decrease of sexual crimes could be attributed to the ongoing awareness campaigns against sexual crimes and dedication from government to fight the scourge.
Minister of Police Nkosinathi Nhleko said the issue of sexual offences still needed to be tackled by all responsible citizens of South Africa.
“The decrease in sexual offences crime does not suggest that no incidents of rape were occurring, they still do exist.”
He added that contact crimes were prevalent in society and there were high levels of violence and aggression, which was a serious concern.
Deputy Police Minister Makhotso Sotyu, MECs responsible for Policing, SAPS Provincial Commissioners as well as various SAPS partners – from business, community policing forums and academia were also present at the release of the crime stats.
The crime stats cover the period from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 and are made up of crimes that have been reported to the police.
Government releases these statistics once a year primarily to provide the public with progress in the fight against crime in the country, as well as a review of some of the current strategies in tackling crime and guiding operational plans for the SAPS. –
Source: SAnews.gov.za
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