Approach to crime not effective

Thursday 19 September 2013 at 12.30am

He was responding to the release of the crime statistics for 2012/13 by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Thursday.

“Serious and violent crime is increasing in South Africa, “Newham said. “After a long period of decreases in serious and violent crime, these are the worst figures we have seen in 10 years.”

Newham said reducing crime was not only a police responsibility. “There is also an important role for other government departments such as health, education and social development.

“Violence remains unacceptably high and should be treated as a serious crisis which stands in the way of South Africa’s social and economic development.

“We have seen increases in murder, attempted murder, car hijacking, street robbery and house robbery. These are some of the crimes South Africans are most afraid of.”

Thursday 19 September 2013 at 11.35am

Releasing the National Crime Statistics on Thursday, Mthethwa said there were 896 298 serious crime arrests in 2012/13 compared to 777 140 during the 2011/12 reporting period.

Police convicted 352 513 people for serious crimes, while there were 307 580 convictions in 2011/12.

Contact crime has decreased by 38.2 percent over nine years, 16 percent during the past four years and 4.2 percent during the past financial year of 2012/13, said Mthethwa.

While the murder rate reduced by 27.2 percent over nine years, with a further reduction of 16.6 percent during the past four years, Mthethwa said there was a slight increase of 0.6 percent  during the past financial year (2012/13). Mthethwa further announced an increase in attempted murder of 6.5 percent during the past financial year.

He said the police would double their efforts to fight this crime.

“We will work harder to ensure this slight increase is re-routed to the downward trends that we experienced over the past 9 years.”

He said the period had been characterised by growing unity in action against crime, a period focused on improving life conditions for all, especially the poor.

Crimes committed against women also decreased by 11.1 percent to 175 880 when compared to the 2009/10 period, when there were 197 877 cases.

Mthethwa says rape has decreased by 3.3 percent in past four years and 0.4% this year. This number, he said, was still unacceptably high.

There was a 34.6% decrease in ATM bombings, from 399 cases to a reduction of 261 cases.

Mthethwa said the stats were proof that police interventions were yielding the desired effects. However, there was still a long way to go to rid South Africa of crime.

“Our journey since apartheid gives us confidence that we will reach a crime-free society.”

Thursday 19 September 2013 at 9.32am

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, Deputy Police Minister Makhotso Sotyu, the National Commissioner of Police, General Riah Phiyega, MECs responsible for policing, provincial commissioners as well as various police partners from business, community policing forums and academia will be present at the release of the crime stats in Pretoria, which will cover the 2012/13 financial year, from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013.

The crime report will cover only crimes that have been reported to the police. The reported crime data is also expected to be further broken down by provinces and police stations.

The categories to be covered during the announcement include murder, business robberies, house robberies, hijackings, robbery with aggravated circumstances, drunken driving, drug related and sexual offences.

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 police.