Accuracy of crime statistics queried
Opposition parties express scepticism, saying it’s 6 to 18 months old
POLICE Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko’s decision to release the crime statistics to the parliamentary police committee today has been widely welcomed, but the closely-watched announcement comes amid a cloud over the police.
Several opposition parties yesterday expressed their scepticism over the accuracy of the crime statistics, also pointing out these were already between six to 18 months old as the statistics related to the previous financial year from April 1 2014 to March 31, 2015.
Already the DA and Freedom Front Plus have fired off parliamentary questions to the health minister over the number of bodies linked to violent deaths in state mortuaries countrywide. This came after the number of corpses linked to violent deaths in Gauteng state mortuaries, obtained from a provincial legislature reply, did not match the provincial police murder and culpable homicide statistics of the same year, as The Star newspaper reported last week.
With MPs getting the first bite at questioning the minister and police boss today, the focus was set to fall on a national instruction to close as “undetectable” as many as 7 000 dockets at one Bloemfontein police station. The move, which affects crime statistics, was uncovered during the parliamentarians’ oversight visit to the Free State last week.
And as national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega is scheduled to take her place alongside the minister today, she faces possible suspension pending a board of inquiry into her fitness for office. Yesterday was the deadline by which she had to tell President Jacob Zuma, who is currently at the UN, why she should stay put.
Last week Zuma announced the board of inquiry under Judge Cornelis Johannes Claasen would consider whether Phiyega misled and undermined the Marikana commission of inquiry into the police killing of 34 miners on August 16, 2013, and 10 people in the preceding week, and whether the police decision to go tactical was concealed and whether its “tragic and catastrophic consequences” should have been foreseen.
Parliamentary police committee chairman Francois Beukman yesterday told the Cape Argus the committee welcomed the minister’s decision to first release the crime statistics before MPs. This showed the minister respected parliamentary processes because today’s engagement enabled MPs to interrogate the information instantly.
The committee would check on whether the accuracy of the crime statistics had been independently checked in line with its recommendation last year, Beukman added.
Spokesman for the ANC in Parliament, Moloto Mothapo, also welcomed the minister’s decision, saying it was “a step in the right direction that augurs well for improved accountability” to the people’s Parliament.
“That such reports on matters of national importance are presented before the institution can only enhance the principles and culture of accountability, transparency and openness,” he added.
DA spokeswoman on police and MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said the party would renew its call for real-time crime statistics to be available at each police station.
“This will save lives”, she said, adding the crime statistics as they were released were only of “historical” interest to analysts establishing trends.