Gauteng is the second murder capital of South Africa

4 August 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is deeply concerned that Gauteng has now become the second murder capital of the country.

This information was revealed in the SAPS annual crime statistics for the 2019/2020.

The crime stats indicate that Gauteng is number one in the country in terms of causes of murder in the following: arguments/ misunderstanding (not related to domestic) 1099, robbery (house/ business/ street) 353, taxi related murder 105, rape related murder 19, illicit mining 61, bullying at school 4, public /service deliver protest 6 and antagonism forward foreigners 5.

This clearly indicates that that the safety of our residents is under threat and that the law enforcement agencies are not doing enough to ensure residents’ safety.

Gauteng is also leading in terms of the illegal mining victims that were killed - there were nine victims killed in Roodeport. There are also seven victims that were killed at different crime scenes in Benoni and are suspected of being involved in illegal mining.

For far too long the DA has been calling on both the SAPS and the Department of Community Safety to stop illegal mining in our province yet there is nothing that has been done. There is no police visibility in those areas where illegal mining activities are taking place.

The overall number of murders in Gauteng has increased by 1,3 % from 4495 in 2018/2019 to 4555 in 2019/2020.

This increase in murder cases is worrying and clearly indicates that SAPS is failing in its responsibility to prevent, combat and investigate crime.

The DA believes that it is the responsibility of the SAPS to prevent anything that may threaten the safety or security of any community and to ensure criminals are brought to justice.

We will hold both the Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko and Gauteng SAPS Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela to account to ensure that police do their duty of preventing and combating crime in this province. We will also table questions in the Gauteng Legislature to ascertain what measures are being put in place to curb the increasing number of murders in the province.

Issued by John Moodey,DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Community Safety, 4 August 2020