‘Household crime a scary reality’

The analysis of this crime category revealed that the majority of these cases were because of arguments, mob justice, revenge, and provocations with 83 of the 237 reported cases occurring at residential places and 57 in public.

The provincial crime statistics were released on Wednesday, 31 March.

“During the release of the national crime statistics for the third quarter of the 2020/21 year, Police Minister, Bheki Cele, flagged our province as one of the three provinces that had a reduction in murder cases for the reporting period.

Nevertheless, we take cognizance of the fact that crime is not a stagnant or predictable phenomenon. This means that there will always be fluctuations in crime patterns because crime varies from one area to another.”

She says these records are a clear depiction of the scary reality that our households have become crime hotspots for murder and that this phenomenon calls for a serious community and personal introspection and intervention that will empower society to use alternative ways to solve problems without resorting to violence.

She says out of the 237 cases, 27 are as a result of vigilantism or mob justice, a practice that is seriously condemned by the department.

Lerule-Ramakhanya mentions that that property-related crimes were reduced by 15,7% and serious crimes by 3,2% during the same period.

However, the same cannot be said about other types of crimes such as contact crimes which have gone up by 5,5% and contact related crimes by 12,6%.

The department is alarmed by the number of sexual offences that continue to rise across the province in the period under review as the police recorded an increase of 13,5% in sexual offences with a case difference of 184 as compared to the same period last year.

The majority of these cases occurred in places of residence or places known to the victim, public places and liquor premises.