Why report crime with inept police?

The really sad thing about the latest report on crime in South Africa, compiled by Statistics SA, is that some of the apparently shocking findings will come as a surprise to nobody. They confirm what we already know: our country is a crime hellhole.

According to the report, less than half of us – 43.8% – would report a crime, even if it happened before our own eyes.

These figures come from the Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey 2023/24, presented by statistician-general Risenga Maluleke yesterday.

The survey estimated that there were 1.5 million incidences of housebreaking, which equates to 5.9% of all households in the country.

However, only 44.1% of survey respondents said that they reported these housebreaking incidents to the police.

As with housebreaking, only 57.6% of the estimated 263 000 home robberies went unreported, with 53.6% of the 506 000 assaults going unreported.

ALSO READ: Less than half of South Africans would report a crime if they witnessed one – Stats SA

Theft was the least reported crime, with only 28.5% of those experiencing such a crime going on to report the incident.

It is obvious why the level of crime reporting is so low – very few ordinary South Africans have any faith that the cops will do a decent job of investigating the crime, never mind eventually bringing the perpetrators to book.

Even police officials themselves know that the most important thing when reporting a crime is to get a case number – for insurance purposes.

After that is done and claims made and paid out, very few crime victims – especially of household thefts and robberies – hear from the police again.

It is no surprise that people and communities take the law into their own hands when punishing – either assaulting or killing – those they believe to be criminals.

That jungle justice has become normalised, showing that our society is deeply dysfunctional. And that only accelerates the spiral of violence of all kinds.

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