Political parties accuse SAPS of failing residents
GAUTENG – Parties doubt SAPS' ability to reverse crime statistics.
Political parties doubt that Police Minister Nathi Nhleko and Commissioner Riah Phiyega have the ability to handle crime in the country.
DA challenged the South African Police Services to put defined strategies in place to deal with the problem.
“We need specialised units to deal with drugs, gangs and gangsterism, hijacking syndicates, and illegal mining,” said Kate Lorimer, DA’s Gauteng Shadow MEC for Community Safety.
In her statement, Lorimer said Gauteng does not emerge as a province that is winning the fight against crime.
The comment came after the SAPS released its crime statistics for the period of March 2014 to March 2015.
Lorimer said Gauteng has second highest rate in murder, while their third highest is illegal possession of firearms, drug related crimes, sexual offences as a result of police action and stock theft.
She said on average 1746 crimes are committed in Gauteng per day.
Lorimer said, “The province’s murder rate has jumped by 10,4 per cent to a total of 3671 incidents, this means in Gauteng, an average of 10 people are murdered per day, 365 days per year.”
She also highlighted that on average, attempted murder occurs 11 times a day while approximately 144 people a day are grievously assaulted.
Lorimer said in total, there are on average 458 people in Gauteng, every day, who are directly affected by crimes against their person.
“The province’s people are not safe either at home or at work as they are endangered by an increased number of robberies at both,” she said in her statement.
Meanwhile Cope also added its accusations against the police ministry, arguing that it has failed the people of South Africa.
Cope’s spokesperson Dennis Bloem said 83 per cent of the crimes reported at police stations comprised the so called community-related crimes, and that shows clearly the importance of implementing the recommendations of the NDP.
He said the minister repeated the critical importance of mobilising social forces to tackle the prevalence of violence.
“Unfortunately, he has done nothing whatsoever in this regard. This is a glaring failure on his part,” said Bloem.
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