Police Minister Bheki Cele is presenting the quarterly crime statistics. The quarterly crime statistics will reflect crimes that occurred from April to June this year.
These statistics will show the crime levels during the time when the country was placed under adjusted lockdown Level 1, 2 and 3 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
These quarterly statistics will not reflect the numbers of the recent violent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng as it took place in July.
During the last SAPS quarterly report, four provinces emerged as crime hot spots in the country. The report, which was released on May 14, had KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Gauteng and the Western Cape in the lead in terms of crimes reported at police stations.
The top 30 police stations with the highest reported murder cases were in these provinces, though these stations only make up 2.7% of the country’s police stations. In total, they contributed 22.5% of the national murder rate of about 4 976 cases. About 9 518 rape cases were reported at these stations.
The violent crime numbers were up. The killings continued to grow, as they have done over the last eight years. Only the hard lockdown temporarily slowed the trajectory.
Car hijackings increased by 4.9%, house robberies by 7.6% and business robberies by 2.8%.
While the number of murders and attempted murders increased nationally, other crimes did fall. The number of rapes fell by 3.9%, while assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm decreased by 9.3% and common robbery by 22.1%.
The research conducted by the Institute for Security Studies indicated that there were fewer criminal offences during stricter lockdown levels, but crime rates increased as lockdown regulations were eased.
In other news – Good news in Cape Town as young adults rush to get COVID-19 vaccine jab
It seems that South Africans between the ages of 18 and 34 aren’t wasting any time in getting their COVID-19 jabs.
Those in this age group can now be vaccinated after the country’s inoculation campaign was further opened on Friday. Learn more
Source: eNCA
