Only one South African province recorded decrease in murders - Crime report

The South Africa Police Service disclosed on Friday that only one out of the 9 provinces in the country recorded a decrease in the number of murders.

According to the police, the Northern Province was the only province that recorded a decrease in murders.

Two other provinces had unchanged statistics from last year while the remaining six reported increases.

Northern Cape province, the only province recorded a decrease in the number of murders #crimestats

— SA Gov News (@SAgovnews) September 2, 2016

The Police also reported that 1.7 million of the community reported crimes in the year under review (2015/2016). This was contained in the annual crime statistics for Africa’s largest and most advanced economy.

The Acting National Commissioner of Police reiterated the need for the fight against crime to be seen as a concerted one between the police and the citizenry. ‘‘Fighting crime is not only a police duty, but its a collective responsibility,’‘ Lt-Gen Khomotso Phahlane said.

Crime statistics that decreased

• South Africa generally experienced a decrease in incidents of crime with the exception of contact crime.
  Contact crime is one in which the perpetrator is known to the victim or vice versa.
• Common robberies decreased by 1.5% after 2.7% in previous financial years
• Robbery at residential areas decreased by 2.7%
• Peaceful protests are on decrease, almost by 50%
• Burglary in residential properties decrease by 1.2%

Crime statistics that increased

• Burglary at non-residential properties increased by 0.9%
• House robberies went up by 2.7%
• Robberies in non-residential areas increase by 2.8%

South Africa in the build up to the just ended local elections recorded a series of high profile political murders. The country is also known to have a high crime rate despite its economic advancement.

Security was also heightened in the country as the local polls were being held. The country had also recorded a series of arson attacks that led to the burning of some 20 schools.

“Our take is that we have what it takes to deliver a safe and secure elections. We have done the necessary deployments. Just today, we have more than 1,000 police people operational in this area,” said acting national police commissioner said at the time.