Cars, homes likely hot spots for attack
Stats reflect ‘unprecedented’ crime wave engulfing SA
ON AVERAGE nine people are killed every day in the Western Cape, while 11 people are killed on average every day in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. You are more likely to be attacked while in your car and home as the crime wave engulfing the country has reached “unprecedented levels”.
“We must ask whether we have accepted to live side-by-side with violent criminals who literally emote terror across our nation, be they in Lusikisiki or the Hard Livings gangs across the Cape Flats,” Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said as he presented the crime statistics for April 2016 to March 2017 in Parliament yesterday.
The Western Cape recorded the fourth-largest number of murders at 3 311 (up 2.7%); Gauteng recorded 4 101 murders; KwaZulu-Natal 4 014 murders (up 2.2%); followed by the Eastern Cape with 3 628 murders (down 0.6%).
Carjackings, home and business robberies continued to see a steady rise in South Africa, MPs were told.
Major-General Norman Sekhukhune, head of police crime research and statistics, indicated that these three crimes, known to the police as “trio crimes”, have seen bigger rises in the 2016/17 financial year than in previous years.
Nationally, carjackings were up 14.5%, while home robberies were up 7.3% (compared to an increase of 2.7% in 2015/16) and business robberies were up 5%.
Gauteng saw a 16.9% increase in carjackings with 8 610 cases reported, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 3 029 cases (up 21.5%), and the Western Cape with 2 201 (up 8.3%).
The number of home robberies was also most prominent in Gauteng, with 8 731 cases (up 10.6%) reported, followed by KwaZulu-Natal 4 255 (up 4.2%), and the Western Cape with 2 560 (down 0.5%).
Gareth Newham, from the Institute for Security Studies, said the police urgently needed to improve their capability to investigate crime, gather evidence and arrest perpetrators.
“The root of the crime and policing crises in South Africa is the failure of the president to appoint a highly experienced woman or man of integrity as SAPS national commissioner,” he said.
Mbalula said the social issues and gun violence in the Western Cape had placed added strain on police resources.
“Despite the decrease in this financial year, some of the individual categories have over the past four financial years tended to reflect an upward trend,” he said.
Mbalula also said gangs were becoming more and more sophisticated.
Western Cape MEC for Community Safety Dan Plato said it was evident that too many people in the province did not have the luxury of feeling safe in their communities.
BRING in the army, Jacob Zuma – send in the troops. Feels like I’m reliving the late ’80s and ’90s all over again.
Imagine the spectre of poorly trained troops in your neighbourhood; consider the fact they will be working in unfamiliar ghettos, with a culture they are unfamiliar with, and are expected to contain a militia whose language most of them don’t understand.
That no less a figure than Police Minister Fikile Mbalula is asking for this extreme action should indicate we should avoid it at all costs; government’s short-sighted policies are directly responsible for the madness we are forced to live with.
If democracy means my children are expected to walk past armed soldiers to and from school, I have to ask what the point of our Struggle was. If jobs are reserved for one race or class, why did I risk my life? Why were many of my peers killed? Have I swopped one oppressor for another?
The brown people have gone from relative to extreme poverty, from previously disadvantaged to historically disadvantaged. School closure, mass retrenchment, backyard status and a dramatic spike in drug addiction is all the new dispensation has brought us.
Our land is being stolen, aided by the same ANC we fought and died for. We have not been overlooked: we have been replaced, for today our indigenous status means nothing. Apparently the true indigenous people have been replaced; our crime: not having enough pigmentation.
When white people complain about 30 years of oppression I wonder if they’ve ever considered how we feel. We’ve known nothing but oppression since Van Riebeeck got off the boat 365 years ago.
Our history and culture was eradicated, many of our forefathers exterminated, yet we do not hate; we love and forgive.
Injustice cannot prevail: the indigenous people will reclaim that which God himself has given them. BRIGADIER GENERAL FADIEL ADAMS Media Liaison Officer South African Cape Corps