SA Murders Down

Pretoria – Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has released the National Crime Statistics for the past fiscal year announcing a significant decline in the murder rate for that period.

Murder decreased by 8.6 percent from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010.

“We have seen the third largest decrease since 1995. For the first time in the history of SAPS, the murder figure fell below the 17 000 mark  compared to 26 877 in 1995/1996 fiscal year,” the minister said on Thursday.

This lower murder figure of 16,834 averages out at 46 killings a day. By South African standards, this is still considered a great achievement.

Mthethwa explained that the achievement was significant given that murder was one of the most reliable crime categories in crime stats.

“Of all the crimes this is the one category you cannot easily cheat. In other words, the fact that such a crime is counted based on the actual bodies makes it more reliable,” he added.

Mthethwa said he was further encouraged by the number of arrests that have taken place that are associated with this type of crime. A total of 11 834 arrests have been made.

However, he said while this had bolstered their resolve to fight crime, the police would endeavour to reduce the figure even more.

Police recorded a further 17,410 attempted murders and more than 205,000 cases of serious assault.

Other categories of crime that also declined in this period included car hijacking, attempted murder, aggravated robberies, street robberies, cash-in-transit heists and bank robberies. Robberies at businesses rose by 4.4 per cent.

According to Chris de Kock, South African police statistician, the decline in murders is because there have been less robberies and therefore less murders associated with robberies.

De Kock said that in most violent crimes the killer and victim are known to each other, and alcohol is often involved.

“Social murder is a much more difficult thing to fight. Social conditions must change, people must change their lifestyle, and that will be only possible if the conditions in the country change. There must be more employment, more investment, more proper human settlements… That can take quite a while,” he said.

National police chief Bheki Cele cited the increased visibility of police as one major reason for the decrease in murders. It was a ploy also used by the police during the 2010 Fifa World Cup (although this report doesn’t cover the World Cup period) and is believed to have led to a sharp drop in crime.

The police recruitment began at the start of 2010, with an extra 44 000 police employed in the period leading up to the World Cup. There was also heavy investment in training and the acquisition of new equipment for the forces. These extra police have now been incorporated in to the normal forces, thus benefiting South Africa long after the Cup has finished.

According to Dianne Kohler Barnard, shadow police minister for the Democratic Alliancr, “South Africans have felt safer in the World Cup year than they have for some time.”

– BuaNews