Crime stats-murder rate up by 1.8%

POLICE minister Fikile Mbalula has announced that a majority of the serious community related crimes – which are dependent on police detection – have recorded a decrease over the past decade. Releasing crime statistics for the financial year 2016/17 to the Portfolio Committee on Police on Tuesday, the Minister said, however, contact crimes like murder and robbery remain stubbornly high.

“We simply cannot fight against an enemy we do not understand. We get to understand the patterns, the occurrences and types of crimes through the statistics so that we may plan accordingly. The integrity of crime statistics is very important and the public must trust that no clever accounting has been done,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Norman Sekhukhune said despite a decrease in community-related crimes, murder remained a challenge.

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Murder was up by 1.8 per cent during the 2016/17 financial year compared to an increase of 4.9 per cent in the previous year.

He said sexual offences were down by 4.3 per cent when compared to 2015/16 (3.2 per cent). Attempted murder went up by 0.4 per cent in the current financial year, while assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm went down by 6.7 per cent. Aggravated robbery went up by 6.4 per cent while common assault and common robbery went down by 5.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.

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