Participants during the peaceful Anti-Gender-Based Violence protest outside Parliament on April 24, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo for illustration: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach
Women and children continue to bear the brunt of violent crimes in South Africa, according to the quarterly crime statistics released by the South African Police Service (Saps).
Police Minister Bheki Cele on Wednesday released the crime stats in Pretoria covering the period between 1 July and 30 September 2022.
These figures are compared to the same period last year when the country was under lockdown restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The crime figures show that aggression and violence against women and children are on the rise. Between July and September this year, a five year record number of assault cases were reported to police.
In the three months, police recorded a double-digit percentage increase for murder (13.6%), attempted murder (19.4%) and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (assault GBH 15.8%) against women.
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13 701 women were victims of assault GBH, 989 were murdered and 1 277 women were victims of attempted murder.
Compared to the same period last year, 11 824 women were victims of assault GBH, 897 were murdered and 1 155 women were victims of attempted murder.
Shockingly, 558 children were killed in South Africa between April and September this year.
315 children were killed between July and September, 294 were victims of attempted murder while 1 895 kids were victims of assault GBH.
More than 10 000 (10 590) rape cases were opened with police between July and September 2022.
From a sample of 8227 rape incidents that were perused by police, it was determined that 5 083 (62%) of these incidents occurred at the residence of the victims or perpetrators.
1 651 of these rape incidents occurred in public places such as streets, parks and beaches. Sixty-nine people were raped in abandoned buildings.
Mpumalanga was the only province to report a decrease in rape incidents. In the same period last year, 691 rape cases were reported in the province, compared to 668 cases (-3.3%) this year.
Inanda police station (78 rape cases) in KwaZulu-Natal, Mthatha (70 rape cases) in the Eastern Cape and Delft (65 rape cases) in the Western Cape – were the three top stations with the highest rape cases.
Buses, taxis, trains and other modes of public transport were the third most likely places of occurrence for rape incidents.
In the three months of reporting, 83 rapes occurred at educational facilities, including primary schools and tertiary institutions.
Police stressed that educational facilities referred to the scene of the crime. This does not mean all perpetrators or victims were pupils or students.
Police across the country investigated a total of 85 640 assault GBH and common assault cases in the three months.
12 203 assault GBH cases took place behind closed doors either at the home of the victim or the home of the perpetrator.
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The second most likely place of occurrence for assault GBH was at public places such as streets, open fields, recreational centres, or abandoned buildings.
6 662 assault GBH cases were domestic violence-related.
7 004 people were killed in South Africa between July and September this year.
This was an increase of 841 more people murdered, compared to the same period in 2021 (6,163).
Arguments, misunderstandings and incidents of road rage and provocations accounted for 956 murders in the country.
Vigilantism incidents claimed the lives of 528 people and 362 people were killed while they were committing a robbery.
Inanda (99 murder cases), uMlazi (95 murder cases) police stations in KwaZulu-Natal and Nyanga (80 murder cases) police station in the Western Cape registered the highest counts of murder during this period.
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