Crime Stats 2023: Three murders every hour

A staggering 6 289 people – three every hour – were murdered between January and March this year. And Police Minister Bheki Cele can’t be complacent by a minor decrease, experts warned.

Releasing the SA Police Service (Saps) crime figures covering the fourth quarter of 2022-23, Cele yesterday said more boots on the ground were “pushing back on criminality through provincial intelligence-led operations to take down individuals or criminal syndicates, hell-bent on terrorising communities”.

Cele said Operation Shanela, geared to identify hot spots in all provinces, was gaining momentum. But he conceded: “Our crime figures show, no matter which part of the country you are in, crime escalates over the weekends.”

Numbers

Presenting a mixed bag of statistics, Cele said: While there were 360 attempted murder cases involving minors, child murders decreased by almost 20% (19.9%), with a slight decrease also noted in assault grievous bodily harm involving children;

There was a double-digit percentage increase of 21.5% recorded in attempted murder figures for the fourth quarter, with 1 485 attempted murders of women in South Africa recorded in the first three months of this year – 969 women killed in the same period;

Murder increased countrywide by 3.4% between January and March;

KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng were the provinces with most killings, driven by arguments, vigilantism and robberies; and

A total of 10 512 people were raped in the first three months of 2023, with 4 768 incidents having taken place at the home of the victim or the perpetrator.

Reality

Commenting on the crime figures, Ian Cameron, Action Society director for community safety, said Cele should remember that “real human beings are behind those numbers”.

“There is no reason to celebrate when more than a quarter of a million people are murdered over a decade. “The statistics show that 11 women and three children are murdered per day. “

READ MORE: Crime Stats 2023: South Africa’s murder hotspots revealed

[The stats] also show that 15 women and four children survive an attempted murder daily,” said Cameron. “Almost 25 000 people in South Africa were victims of attempted murder this past year.

“[The Saps] can read off crime statistics as much as they want – the problem is that the system is broken. “There are real people behind the statistics who are murdered, raped and assaulted – not numbers.”

Agricultural organisation TLU SA said the latest crime statistics showed that the government and Saps were “failing miserably to protect citizens”.

“This can be attributed to the wrong policy direction, cadre deployment and poor country management,” general manager Bennie van Zyl said.

“The statistics only refer to the direct figures of crime, but don’t show the far-reaching impact on the economy. “What responsible business would invest in a country where their products are lost through truck hijacking and theft – exposed to 13 cases of trade crime per hour, while their staff are exposed to murder, rape and serious assault daily?” asked Van Zyl.

The Automobile Association of South Africa’s (AA) latest survey has shown that only 31% of South African citizens feel safe. According to the AA Quarter 4 State of Security Report, 37% of citizens felt either “barely safe” (22%) or “not safe at all” (15%) in South Africa.

The survey also found that: v South Africans felt most unsafe in outdoor public spaces (45%) and during their daily commute (25%); and In their own homes, South Africans either felt “safe” (30%), “very safe” (20%), or “extremely safe” (14%).

“These numbers are not only an indication of the nightmare many South Africans face daily, but they are indicative of a government which has totally lost control against crime,” said AA CEO Willem Groenewald.– brians@citizen.co.za

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