Wave of crime sweeping through South Africa

23 November 2022

The police's latest crime statistics show that a wave of crime is sweeping through the country. All categories of crime sharply increased, compared to the same period last year.

The figures for the second financial quarter of the year (July to September 2022) were released today.

Within a year, contact and sexual crimes increased with, on average, 14,75% while there was also a sharp increase in the feared trio crimes.

The trio crimes include robbery with aggravating circumstances or armed robbery (up by 22% compared to 2021), robberies at residential premises (8,4%) and carjackings (23,6%).

Although there was a sharp increase in all crime categories, the greatest spikes were in robbery (25%), robbery with aggravating circumstances (22%), attempted sexual offences (34%) and carjackings (23,6%).

Truck-jackings increased most sharply with 36,8%.

These figures almost overshadow the increase of 13,6% in murder, which makes it the highest recorded murder rate since 2011.

Over the last three years, murders in South Africa increased from 5 107 (July to September 2020) to 6 163 (2021) and now to 7 004.

Presently, 12 people out of every 100 000 of the population are killed. That is 79 people per day out of a population of 60 million.

The murder rate for the last two quarters of this year already stands at a staggering 13 428. It means there is a good chance that more than 26 000 murders will be recorded for this financial year.

In the past, the usual trend was that while some types of crime would increase, others would decrease.

That made it possible to identify problem areas, which showed sharp increases and required special attention.

But now it is clear that the situation has changed drastically, and that the police is busy losing the fight against crime across the entire spectrum.

The Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, is the person who must account for this.

Moreover, the FF Plus has its doubts about the crime statistics. The Auditor-General (AG) found earlier this year that the figures released for the quarterly statistics are not correct.

The reason for this is that the statistics cannot be correlated to the number of crime dockets. It frequently happens that people report crimes, but never receive a case number.

The statistics show that Police Minister Bheki Cele is steadily busy losing the fight against crime. Crime is out of control.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 23 November 2022