Withholding crime statistics shows that it is an embarrassment for government

17 May 2024

The fact that the police failed to announce the quarterly crime statistics today, as per usual, shows that the climbing crime levels is an embarrassment for government which it wants to conceal ahead of the elections.

The previous figures, announced in February this year, indicated that violent crime, in particular, keeps rising and that South Africa is fast becoming one of the most crime-affected countries in the world.

So, it is unacceptable that the public, who are at the mercy of criminals and violent crime, are not informed of the latest state of affairs.

In failing to do so, government is clearly putting the ANC's interests before the public's interests and safety. This is particularly true for women and children seeing as the latest statistics clearly showed that violence against these two groups is rising sharply.

The cold, hard facts prove that government and President Cyril Ramaphosa's many promises and plans to take decisive action to curb crime were just hollow words.

Crime affects all South Africans, including the supporters of the ANC, and the FF Plus will insist that the figures are released before the elections on 29 May.

After the elections, the FF Plus will, as a governing partner in a coalition government, ensure that the fight against crime is once again prioritised by government and the police force.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 17 May 2023