The SAPS and Statistics South Africa, on Friday, released the national crimes statistics for the period of April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020.
This year the stats were released earlier than the usual September date as the SAPS will in future publish them on a quarterly basis.
Speaking at the release, minister of police Gen Bheki Cele said he hoped this new approach would allow for timely intervention measures aimed at crime reduction.
The stats are made up of 21 overall crime categories, 17 of which are those reported by the public and the remaining four are those as a result of police action.
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They are: Contact crimes: murder, attempted murder, assault, common robbery and sexual offences’
Contact-related crimes: arson and malicious damage to property
Property-related crimes: burglary business, burglary residential, theft of motor vehicle, theft out of or from motor vehicle and stock theft.
Other serious crimes: all other types of theft, commercial crime and shoplifting.
Crime detected as a result of police action: crimes discovered as a result of active policing, such as raids and roadblocks.
Included in this category is illegal possession of firearms, drug-related crimes, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and sexual offences detected as a result of police action.
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Overall, there was a decrease in crime across the country in the past year.
The minister highlighted some of the improvements that have been made over the past year.
In contact crimes, particularly murder, the police recorded a trend of halving the case increase in the past three years.
In 2017/18 the case difference was 1 320, in 2018/19 the cases difference was 686 and this year, they recorded a case difference of 303.
“Another crime category worth mentioning is that of stock theft, which recorded an increase in the past three years.
“Last year we made a commitment to deploy intervention measures in this regard, which proved to be yielding positive results; hence, stock theft has recorded a decrease of 4.2 per cent.
“I always argue that the same resources that are deployed to fight aggravated robberies must equally be channelled to address stock theft as this is regarded as a serious crime to rural economy,” said Cele.
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Another important category that has recorded a significant decrease is property-related crimes, where all crimes under this category indicated a major decrease, including burglary at residential premises, which has declined by 6.7 per cent.
Robbery at residential properties also decreased by 5.8 per cent.
“Meanwhile, under the sub-categories of aggravated robbery, robbery of cash-in-transit recorded a decrease of 10.4 per cent and bank robberies declined by 100 per cent.
“During the period under review, there were no bank robberies in South Africa.
“However, in the same category, carjacking and truck hijacking have recorded an increase of 13.3 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively,” said Cele.
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When speaking about sexual offences, it was noted that educational institutions are becoming hotbeds for sexual violence and 380 cases of rape were reported at either schools, universities, colleges or day-care facilities.
Cele highlighted how policing had changed under the Covid-19 pandemic and said the pandemic has drastically redefined traditional policing, social distancing is the new normal, effecting an arrest and a deployment at a community service centre suddenly demands a different standard operating procedure.
“All men and women in blue in the Republic of South Africa collided with the drastic turn of events and had to immediately adjust while focused on serving and protecting the nation.
“This invisible enemy is brutal and it is attacking everyone.
“In the call of duty during this pandemic the SAPS has lost a total number of 113 police officers, while 12 138 have contracted the virus, with 254 hospitalised and 4 904 recoveries,” said Cele.
Although there was a slight decrease in the crime reported, Gauteng remains a dangerous place in which to live or work.In the 17 categories of crimes reported by public, there was a 2.2 per cent decrease.
In 2019/2020 463 509 crimes were reported by the public compared to the 474 005 reported last year.
Police also struggled with effective policing as crimes detected as a result of police action increased when compared to last year.However, all is not lost.
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Residents in Springs will be happy to know the overall crime rate in Springs has decreased.
Last year, the Springs Police Station was listed in the top 30 stations for sexual assault, burglary at residential premises, robberies at residential areas, property-related crime, theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles and truck hijackings.
This year, Springs also features in two of those lists.
Springs was listed at number 14 in robbery at non-residential premises.
One-hundred and eleven cases were opened over the past year, which is an increase of 16 when compared to the previous year.I
n the burglary at residential premises, Springs was listed at number 26, with 735 cases reported.
This is an increase of 68 when compared to the previous year.
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