Every quarter new figures are released to indicate the state of the country’s crime levels. Recently, Minister Bheki Cele presented the crime statistics to the Portfolio Committee for the fourth quarter of 2022/23. These statistics indicated an increase of 3.4% compared to the same period last year.
South Africa had fewer children killed between January and March this year than during the same period last year. One child homicide is too many, and the South African Police Service must strive for zero tolerance for child murder. Child homicides declined by nearly 20% (19.9%), and there was also a modest decrease in child assault grievous bodily harm (GBH) cases.
Sadly, and concerningly, 29 more children were victims of attempted murder this year compared to the same period the previous year. The SAPS registered and investigated 360 more attempted murder cases involving children. Violence against women in this country continues, primarily at the hands of men.
In the fourth quarter, attempted murder data increased by a double-digit percentage of 21.5%. In the first three months of this year, there were 1 485 attempted murders of women in South Africa. During the same time period, 969 women were killed, and over 15,000 women were assaulted; the SAPS is investigating assault GBH cases.
Murder increased by 3.4% in South Africa between January and March 2023. When compared to the preceding three quarters, this is the lowest single-digit reduction recorded. Despite the decrease, they are not just numbers, but human lives that must be preserved at all costs.
As a result of these statistics, the cops are stepping up their efforts to reduce contact crimes. Between January and March of this year, 6 289 persons were killed with a firearm, knife, sharp and blunt objects, stone, or even bare hands.
The majority of the homicides occurred in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, and Gauteng, with disagreements, vigilantism, and robbery leading the list of motives for murder. The KwaZulu-Natal province also reported the largest number of multiple-murder incidents, with 206 and 155 victims, respectively.
Murder figures fell in the Free State, Northern Cape, and Western Cape provinces, with both the Western Cape and Northern Cape reporting double-digit drops. These crime statistics also reveal that the Western Cape is turning the turnaround in terms of contact crimes. This is partly due to law enforcement agencies working together to target high-crime regions such as the Cape Flats.
R65 million has been provided to the top 30 crime-heavy stations to handle murder and other contact crimes. In addition to this additional money, the police are immediately responding to community calls to improve the capability and training of Tactical Response Teams (TRT).
The TRT will be stationed at stations and districts in high-crime regions. These highly trained and talented policemen will serve as force multipliers at the local level, assisting in the policing of high-crime areas.
The SAPS is also beefing up specialised tracking squads, who will be further trained at the province and district levels in order to successfully trace and catch offenders. The tracking teams will be critical to the success of Operation Shanela, which will also focus on executing arrest orders. The most powerful weapon will continue to be more police visibility. To boost police visibility, R1.8 billion has been set aside for the purchase of police cars.
The SAPS is also buying unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to better police from the air. More drone pilots are also being licenced, and intern drone pilots are being sought. Body-worn cameras and shot spotters are the priority in high-crime zones. Cash in Transit (CIT) heists have continued to rise in the first three months of this year.
The police are optimistic that newly legislated surveillance device technology will result in significant changes in this criminal pattern and other organised crimes.
TRIO crimes which include carjackings, house robberies, and business robberies, have decreased significantly in the first three months of this year. During the same reporting period, there were also improvements in recorded stock theft cases. During this time, fewer residences were burglarized, and robberies at non-residential establishments also decreased.
According to the data, these other significant crimes climbed by 7.3% year on year, while home robbery increased by 5.9%. There is always confusion about the difference between these two categories of crime. The main distinction is that home robbery is where force is used on the people in the home (a contact crime), making it a more violent crime than house breaking/burglary (where there is no contact between the victim and the perpetrator).
House robberies had 5,578 incidents registered in the first three months of 2023. Gauteng (33.7%) and Kwa-Zulu Natal (26.5%) accounted for the lion’s share of the 5,578 cases.
However, the Northern Cape witnessed the greatest increase in these robberies over the first three months of 2023, with a 72.4% increase, followed by the Eastern Cape (24.7%) and Kwa-Zulu Natal(13.9%). The Western Cape, on the other hand, had a 10.8% decrease in home robberies, followed by the Free State (-9%) and the North West (-6.2%).
Rape instances reported have decreased throughout the reporting period, with six provinces reporting fewer rapes. Rape case reductions are ascribed, among other things, to the SAPS expanding its efforts to track down gender-based violence (GBV) abusers, arresting serial sex offenders and rapists, and continuing conversations with communities.
The fact that 10 512 persons were raped in the first three months of this year is still concerning. 4 768 of the rape cases occurred at the victim’s or perpetrator’s residence.
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Source: Minister Bheki Cele releases quarter one crime statistics 2023/2024 [Online]. South African Government. Available at: https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-bheki-cele%C2%A0release-quarter-one-crime-statistics-20232024-18-aug-2023-0000
