THE Minister of Police, Nkosinathi Nhleko released the country’s crime stats in Parliament earlier today. Nhleko appeared before Parliament’s Police Portfolio Committee where he broke down various categories of crimes between 1 April, 2015 and the end of March 2016.
The statistics show that the national murder rate has now increased. For the 2015/2016 financial year, the 18,673 murders were recorded nationally, up from 17,805 in 2014, which is an increase of 4.88 per cent.
Home robberies has increased since last year as well as a 14 per cent increase in carjackings (hijacking) across South Africa. KwaZulu-Natal had more than 2 000 cases of hijackings reported.
The majority of some 2 million charges laid at police stations in the last year were reported by the community, as opposed to being detected by police, Parliament heard on Friday.