Crime stats: Murder, hijackings up

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Parliament – Murder is up, especially in Gauteng and the Western Cape. There’s a massive spike in both truck and car hijacking. Bank robberies and cash-in-transit heists continued to drop as gangs move to the easier targets of hijackings, business robberies and home robberies, all of which are up. This is what emerged from the South African Police Service (SAPS) crime statistics for 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015, which were released on Tuesday. Police Minister Nathi Nhleko was releasing the crime statistics during a meeting of Parliament’s portfolio committee on police on Tuesday.

Contact crimes in South Africa have increased by 0.9 percent, he said.

Contact crimes include murder, attempted murder, assault and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

The minister said contact-related crimes, which include arson and malicious damage to property, rose by 1.9 percent.

Property-related crimes saw a downward trend, decreasing 0.8 percent, to 30.8 percent.

Other serious crimes were down 2.2 percent to 27.8 percent.

In his opening address on Tuesday morning, Nhleko told Parliament’s portfolio committee on police that for this year's crime statistics, the SAPS has focused on social circumstances within the country.

“This is not just about numbers,” he said.

Despite a rise in contact crime statistics since last year, Nhleko said that over a 10-year period, South Africa has still seen double digit percentage decreases in contact and other serious crimes.

He also highlighted the more than a thousand life sentences handed to criminals over the past year, and also noted 686 police were arrested for serious crimes in 2014.

Nhleko said that the major occurrences of violence in society has to be addressed, with all “necessary structures” needing to mobilise to fight back against serious crimes.

Families and schools need to help socialise the youth to turn away from crime, according to Nhleko, who believed that a ground-up approach was necessary.

The causal link between drug/alcohol abuse and crime needed to be addressed, and if such abuse was stemmed through a multi-disciplinary approach by state agencies, violence could be reduced.

Nhleko said that police detection of crime was on the increase, an encouraging trend that stations needed to continue. Social unrest was also on the rise, according to the minister, with public protests increasing.

He said it was not purely a policing matter, as other service delivery agencies had to improve to prevent societal unrest.

He noted a marked decrease in sexual offences cases, but admitted the lower statistics was not an indication of any major victory against the scourge of rape in South Africa.

Undocumented immigrants entering the country illegally was also a major problem, according to Nhleko, alongside a resurgence of taxi violence recently.

“We need to encourage this societal mobilisation around tackling these instances of crime,” said Nhleko.

He said building partnerships with business communities was paramount.

The SAPS reported 17 805 murders for the year, about 5 percent more than the previous year.

The most number of murders in a province was again in KwaZulu-Natal which had 3810 while the Eastern Cape, usually one of the most violent provinces, had a 4 percent drop to 3321. The Northern Cape had the biggest drop at 6 percent, recording 413 murders, the lowest of all the provinces.

The biggest provincial increase in murders was in Gauteng with 3671 which was a 10 percent increase followed by the Western Cape with an increase of nearly 10 percent to 3186.

Robbery with aggravating circumstances (armed and violent robberies) were up nearly 9 percent to 129 045 incidents from 118 963.

The total number of sexual offences dropped 5 percent to 53 617 incidents; this includes violent sexual offences such as rape which is not in a separate category but also pornography and prostitution.

Truck hijacking jumped 29 percent to 1279 incidents and car jacking was up 14 percent to 12 773 cases.

There were 119 cash-in-transit heists (down from 145) and 17 bank robberies (21).

But home robberies jumped 5 percent to 20 281 and business robberies were up 3 percent to 19 170.

These were the key categories:

+ Murder 17 805 (up 5 percent from 17 023 during 2013/14)

+ Total sexual offences 53 617 (down 5 percent 56 680)

+ Attempted murder 17 537 (up 3 percent from 16 989)

+ Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm 182 556 (up 0.1 percent from 182 333)

+ Common assault 161 486 (down 3 percent from 166 081)

+ Aggravated robberies 129 045 (up 9 percent from 118 963)

+ Common robbery 54 927 (up 3 percent from 53 505)

+ Commercial crime 67 830 (down 12 percent from 76 744)

These are sub-categories of the aggravated robberies:

+ Car jacking 12 773 cases (up 14 percent from 11 180)

+ Truck hijacking 1279 cases (up 29 percent from 991)

+ Cash-in-transit heists 119 cases (down 18 percent from 145)

+ Bank robberies 17 cases (down 19 percent from 21)

+ Home robberies 20 281 cases (up 5 percent from 19 284)

+ Business robberies 19 170 cases (up 3 percent from 18 573)

Crimes detected by police action included:

+ Illegal possession of firearms and ammunition 15 116 cases (down 2 percent from 15 362)

+ Drug-related cases 266 902 cases (up 2 percent from 260 596)

+ Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs 68 561 cases (down 2 percent from 69 725)

The Star and ANA

* This story will be updated as more information becomes available.