More than 50 people a day were murdered in South Africa between April 1 2015 and March 31 this year, the country’s senior police personnel revealed on Friday.
Tabling the annual crime statistics in Parliament, police management told MPs that 18,673 people were murdered in 2015/16, representing a 4.9 percent increase from the previous year.
“It still seems to be a problematic crime we are facing,” said Norman Sekhukhune, SA Police Service Head of Crime Research and Statistics, while briefing MPs during the release of the 2015/16 crime stats in Parliament.
The only province which had seen a decrease (9.9 percent) in the murder rate was the Northern Cape.
Crimes such as robbery, murder, attempted murder have decreased in three of the nine provinces in the country.
He has briefed parliament’s Police portfolio committee.
Sekhukhune says contact crimes have increased collectively in Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape and the Western Cape.
“Contact crimes have decreased in three of the nine provinces include Eastern Cape, Free State and KZN. Whereas we have observed increases in Gauteng province, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape and the Western Cape. Murder has increased by 4.9% when we look at the provincial breakdown – the only province that has managed to [decrease] this crime is the Northern Cape. The rest of the provinces have shown [an] increases,” adds Sekhukhune.
“The rest of the provinces have shown increases ranging from 1.2 percent to 15.6 percent observed in Limpopo,” said Sekhukhune.
Sexual offences continued to show a downward trend, dropping by 3.2 percent, with all provinces, with the exception of Limpopo (up 1.3 percent) and the Northern Cape (up 8.9 percent), having seen a decrease.
Attempted murders in South Africa was up by 3.4 percent, while assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm was up slightly by 0.2 percent.
Common assault was up 2.2 percent from the previous year, robbery with aggravating circumstances 2.7 percent, while common robbery was down by 1.5 percent.
The so-called trio crimes (house robberies, business robberies and carjackings) were up 0.2 percent. House robberies increased by 2.7 percent, with the Western Cape contributing significantly to this figure with a 19.3 percent rise in this crime in the province.
Business robberies rose by 2.8 percent compared to the 2014/15 stats, while car hijackings increased by 14.3 percent, with only the Free State province having experienced a decrease of 4.4 percent.
Hijackings in the Northern Cape increased by 213 percent, North West by 33.1 percent, Western Cape by 32.8 percent, Limpopo by 30.4 percent, Eastern Cape by 24.3 percent, Mpumalanga by 23.6 percent, KwaZulu-Natal by 13.8 percent, and Gauteng by 7.3 percent.
Truck hijackings were down (7.4 percent) for the first time since 2012.
Cash-in-transit heists also continued a steady downward trend, decreasing by 15.1 percent, so too did bank robberies which were down 64.7 percent.
SABC
