28 September 2006
The levels of "contact crime" in South Africa decreased in the year to 31 March compared to the same period in 2004/05, with attempted murder, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, common assault and common robbery all meeting the government's targets by decreasing more than 10%.
However, murder (down by 1.4%), rape (down 0.3%), indecent assault (down 3.1%) and robbery with aggravating circumstances (down 5.6%) missed the target the government set itself two years ago, of reducing contact crimes by between 7% and 10% every year until 2009.
And while overall crime levels dropped by 9% in 2005/06 compared to 2004/05, aggravated robberies - including cash-in-transit heists, bank robberies and car hijackings - increased.
Speaking in Pretoria on Wednesday after the release of the SA Police Service's annual report, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said South Africa still had a lot of work to do in its fight against crime.
Govt, business to act on robberies
Siphiwe Nzimande, the CEO of Business Against Crime, said in a statement that continued "steady progress ... in the national fight against crime" was counter-balanced by negative trends in "serious and violent crime instigated by organised crime syndicates."
President Thabo Mbeki, senior Cabinet ministers and members of the Big Business Working Group agreed during a meeting in Cape Town in August to "raise the level of engagement" in the fight against crime in South Africa.
Since then, government and business have been working on a comprehensive strategy to tackle crime in the country.
This partnership, Nzimande said, was "now poised to make a meaningful impact on these crimes in the coming months, particularly since the government had prioritised aggravated robberies for special focused action."
Contact crimes
According to SA Police Service (SAPS)
figures, murders dropped 1.4% year-on-year to 18 528 cases in 2005/06, putting the ratio of murders per 100 000 people in South Africa at 39.5 - down from 47.8 in 2001.
The figures for other contact crimes in 2005/06 are:
- Rape: down 0.3% to 54 926 cases, or 117 per 100 000 people (121:100 000 in 2001).
- Attempted murder: down 16.1% to 20 571 cases, or 44 per 100 000 people (70:100 000 in 2001).
- Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm: down 9% to 226 942 cases, or 484 per 100 000 people (589:100 000 in 2001).
- Common assault: down 15% to 227 553 cases, or 485 per 100 000 people (584:100 000 in 2001).
- Robbery with aggravating circumstances: down 5.6% to 119 726 cases, or 255 per 100 000 people (260:100 000 in 2001).
- Common robbery: down 17.7% to 74 723 cases, or 159 per 100 000 people (201:100 000 in 2001).
- Indecent assault: down 3.1% to 9 805 cases, or 20.9 per 100 000 people (17:100 000 in 2001, 21.7:100 000 in 2005).
Chris de Kock, the head of the police's Crime Information Analysis Centre, told journalists that between 70% and 80% of contact crimes in South Africa were "social crimes," in other words, were committed among people known to each other, where the perpetrator had a social relationship with the victim.
This included 81.5% of murders, 76% of rapes and 89% of common assaults, De Kock said.
Conventional policing was inadequate to prevent such crimes, De Kock said. "The only thing that can prevent this is large-scale socio-economic development that will lead to a change in lifestyles."
Alcohol and drug consumption
De Kock noted that it was over weekends that violent crimes such as murders, rapes and serious assaults "exploded" in the country.
Analysis showed that murders, rapes and serious assaults rose steadily on Fridays and peaked on Saturdays, and that they occurred mostly in the evenings, with the numbers peaking between 7pm and 9pm.
This led the police to associate these types of violence with alcohol and drug consumption, De Kock said.
'Flashpoints'
According to the police, South Africa's "flashpoints" - the police stations that saw the most contact crimes in 2005/06 - were Hillbrow in central Johannesburg, followed by a number of townships around the country:
- KwaMashu and Umlazi outside Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
- Moroka in Soweto, Johannesburg.
- Galeshewe in Kimberley, Northern Cape.
- Inanda near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
- Mitchells Plein and Nyanga in Cape Town, Western Cape.
- Tembisa, east of Johannesburg, Gauteng.
While contact crime levels continued to drop in 2005/06, aggravated robberies - including cash-in-transit heists, bank robberies and car hijackings - all increased, with the sole exception of truck hijackings.
According to the police figures, car hijackings increased by 0.3% to 12 825 cases in 2005/06 - the first annual increase since 2001, when 15 846 cases were recorded.
Truck hijackings, however, continued to fall, dropping a further 10.9% to 829 cases in 2005/06 - from 3 333 cases in 2001.
Bank robberies increased marginally: there were 59 cases in 2005/06, one more than in 2004/05 - compared to 356 cases in 2001. Cash-in-transit robberies, however, rocketed by 55% to 342 cases, from 220 in 2004/05 and 238 in 2001.
Aggravated house robberies rose by 8.3% to 10 173 cases in 2005/06 (compared to 9 063 cases in 2002), while aggravated business robberies were up 32.1% to 4 387 cases (5 498 in 2002).
SouthAfrica.info reporter and BuaNews
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