THE release of the latest crime stats by the Minister of Police on Tuesday morning has been welcomed by the KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner, Lt Gen Mmamonnye Ngobeni.
“It is pleasing to note that despite the numerous challenges we experienced during the past financial year, police and other law enforcement agencies have been able to continue to reduce most crimes in the province. We will still be presenting the crime statistics for KwaZulu-Natal to the provincial legislature and will only then be in a position to brief the media in detail,” she said.
The latest crime statics indicate that for the 2014/2015 financial year contact crimes in the KwaZulu-Natal were reduced by 3.2 per cent. During the same period contact related crimes showed a reduction of 2.5 per cent while property crimes were reduced by 1.6 per cent. Other serious crimes showed a reduction of 3.6 per cent while crimes dependent on police action continued on a positive trend showing an increase of 0.8 per cent. Total trio crimes in the province showed a reduction of 1.8 per cent.
Ngobeni said during her briefing, the National Commissioner, General Riah Phiyega indicated that KwaZulu-Natal was one of the top three performing provinces in the country in terms of crime reduction, during the 2014/2015 financial year.
“While we welcome the reduction in crime, we acknowledged that a lot still needs to be done for us to ensure that our communities are and feel safe. I am certain that with the multi-disciplinary approach in fighting crime and the increased participation by members of the community to address the root causes of crime, we can do even better in the months to come,” she added.
