While some areas of Pretoria show worsening crime trends, Centurion stands out with improvements for all five police stations.
This was revealed following Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s release of the first quarter crime statistics for 2024/25 on Friday, August 30.
The statistics released include data from all 1 163 stations across the country over the past five years for the period from April to June.
Lyttelton, one of Centurion’s largest police stations, showed a 13.4% decrease in contact crimes, with robbery with aggravating circumstances dropping by over 20%.
Property-related crimes dropped by 9.3%, the largest portion coming from a staggering 32.8% drop in burglary at residential premises.
Despite the successes, Lyttelton reported increases in theft in and of motor vehicles and motorcycles.
Lyttelton reported a 41.3% increase in crimes detected by police action reflecting the stellar work of police in combatting crime.
Despite the positive results, Lyttelton featured in the top 30 nationally for certain categories of crime:
– third in the country for commercial crimes,
– 10th for theft of motor vehicles,
– 14th for property-related crimes,
– 22nd for theft out of motor vehicles, and
– 28th for other types of theft.
Wierdabrug also appeared on the list, ranking at 17th nationwide for commercial crimes and 22nd for property-related crimes.
It followed a similar trend to Lyttelton, and in some cases showed even further improvement in certain crime categories.
The station reported a 34.3% drop in burglaries, making up the largest portion of its 18.5 % drop in property-related crimes.
Erasmia and Laudium both showed decreases in contact crimes, while property-related crimes such as burglary and theft of motor vehicles did not perform as favourably as the other Centurion stations, with little change from the previous year’s data.
Olievenhoutbosch had some of the largest crime reduction numbers, reporting almost a third fewer contact crimes.
Figures might point to the 29.7% increase in crimes detected as a result of police action for the proactive approach the station has applied.
While police activity has seen a marked reduction in crime numbers, security companies, neighbourhood watches, and local CPF groups have contributed to the decrease.
AfriForum Centurion chairperson André de Bruyn said its neighbourhood watch has been working hard to combat crime, with 24/7 patrols targeting certain crimes.
“At AfriForum Centurion branch we strongly believe that the basic fundamental starting point bring down crime is to be visible in your streets,” he told Rekord.
“If we give criminals freedom of movement without disturbing them, they do as they like.”
De Bruyn said security forces and police working together was behind the success.
“We are very honoured to be part of a lot of crime-fighting initiatives in the Centurion area and think the stronger we get and work together with all other community initiatives, the better for all of us staying in Centurion.”
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