CRIME STATISTICS for the country were released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on September 29. The statistics refer to the period April 2014 to March 2015, and whatever victories were claimed by the SAPS, they will be small comfort to the hundreds of thousands victims of the crimes.
Nationally, of the 27 categories of crimes, only 11 decreased in number; the other 16 categories had increased.
Among those that had increased was Murders, the category of crime which for many is the yardstick against which crime is measured. There were 17,805 murders in that year, or 49 murders a day for the whole year. This figure is 4.6% up on the previous year.
Twenty-three of those murders were reported to the Vryheid SAPS, three more than in the previous year. In fact, the total number of crimes reported at the Vryheid SAPS during the year under review was 3,483, up from 3.301 the previous year.
Among Contact Crimes (Crimes against the Person) in Vryheid, only Sexual Offences recorded a decrease, down to 89 from 120 the previous year. Other Contact Crimes’ statistics for Vryheid were (with the previous year in brackets):
Attempted Murder – 26 (16);
Assault GBH – 242 (199);
Common Assault – 248 (201);
Common Robbery – 117 (99);
Robbery with Aggravating Circumstances 107 (77).
Apparently, one of the most feared crimes among the public is Burglary at Residential Premises. In Vryheid there were 283 cases reported to the SAPS, up from 180 the previous year. And there were 18 cases of Robberies at Residential Premises, up from just eight the previous year.
Other significant increases on Vryheid were Theft Out Of or From Motor Vehicle of which there were 253 cases, 209 the previous year, and Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs of which there were 151 cases, up from 107.
Interestingly, if one believes the figures, Mondlo is winning the fight against crime. There were 3,450 crimes reported at the Mondlo SAPS, down from 4,026 the previous year.
Mondlo had 34 murders reported to its SAPS, and only 15 cases of Driving Under the Influence.
