SA winning the war on crime
22 September 2005
South Africa is winning the war on crime, according to Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula.
Releasing the South African Police Service's 2004/05 annual report at the Union Buildings on Wednesday, Nqakula said that although the country's overall crime rate showed a decrease of five percent over 2003/04, he would prefer it "if all crime, particularly contact, crime was reduced."
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The full statistics - by category of crime, as well as by province - are available on the SAPS website.
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"We took a decision at the beginning of last year to reduce serious and violent crimes by between seven and 10 percent
annually for the next five years," he said.
Between 2002 and 2005, he said, the SAPS had trained 17 475 detectives. In keeping with the requirements of Domestic Violence Act, 1 148 police officers had been trained in protecting victims of domestic violence.
Most categories of violent crimes had decreased, with murders down by 5.6% and attempted murders down by 18.8% since the end of 2003/04.
The sharp reduction in the number of attempted murder cases was explained by a police analyst as being partly a result of the firearms amnesty that ended in June, during which over 80 000 illegal and legal firearms were handed over to the police.
Police analyst Chris de Kock, leading the presentation of the report to the media, said the decrease in attempted murders had "much to do" with the removal of firearms from society, adding that more than 80% of attempted murders were committed with firearms.
Car-hijackings, a sub-category of aggravated robbery, showed a
consistent decline by about 1 000 incidences a year since 2001/02. In 2004/05 the total dropped by 9.9% over the previous year.
Over the four-year period since a new crime statistics system was put in place, murders have declined from an average of 48 per 100 000 of the population in 2001/02 to 40 per 100 000 by 2004/05.
However, the number of sexual crimes over the past financial year showed an increase, with rape up by 4% in 2004/05 and indecent assault increasing by 8% in this period.
De Kock said this could be partially attributed to the fact that reporting levels of these crimes were higher. This is largely reflected by a greater confidence in the police service from members of the public, he said.
"As the reporting of both rape and indecent assault improves, the statistics are going to indicate a rise and not a decline in that category of crime," Nqakula said, attributing increased reporting levels in part to the 16 Days of No Violence Against Women and
Child Abuse campaign waged by government and NGOs.
Drug-related offences showed the biggest increase in this year's statistics, with a 33.5% increase over 2003/04. The report, however, noted that this category was "heavily dependent on police action for detection", suggesting that the police have displayed more vigilance over the past year in tackling this category of crime.
The steep rise can, however, also be partly explained by a rise in the popularity of certain hard drugs - such as the amphetamine derivative popularly known as "tik" -in some parts of the country, especially the Western Cape province.
Nqakula said police staffing levels were set to grow by the end of 2007/08 to 165 850 personnel for sector policing to reduce crime levels in the country.
"The future looks very rosy for me in terms of safety and security and fighting crime in the country," he said.
Source: BuaNews
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