Crime hotspots in Gauteng

Johannesburg Central is the most crime-ridden place in Gauteng.

This according to the provincial crime statistics that were released by the Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Deliwe de Lange.

Deliwe, together with her managerial team, presented the crime statistics of the province to the portfolio committee on Community Safety at the Provincial Legislature.

Although Johannesburg Central Police Station saw a 5.3 per cent decrease in reported crimes compared to the previous financial year, the station is still leading as the top contributing station on reported crimes for the period between 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016.

Coming in second is Honeydew, which also saw a recorded 5.1 per cent decrease in reported crimes but still had a high rate of reported crimes, compared to other police stations. Hillbrow Police Station comes third and recorded a 4.6 per cent increase in reported crimes, while Sandton Police Station came fifth with an improvement as their reported cases decreased by 10.8 per cent.

Other stations that recorded a huge number of reported crimes include Roodepoort, Midrand, Douglasdale and Florida.

Although the police didn’t give a breakdown of the type of crimes reported at these stations, contact crimes were leading with the most crimes reported by the community. Contact crime refers to crimes in which victims are the targets of violence, or property is targeted and the victims in the vicinity during the commission of the crime are subject to threats of violence or the use of such violence.

Crimes in this category include:

•  Murder
• Sexual offences
• Attempted murder
• Assault GBH (with grievous bodily harm)
• Common assault
• Common robbery
• Robbery with aggravated circumstance.