Crime statistics a cry for further police intervention, says DA

THE DA said the police statistics are a cry for more police intervention in crime-ridden areas, while the FF Plus has raised concerns at the high rate of farm murders.

Mireille Wenger, DA MPL and party spokesperson on crime, said the latest crime statistics indicate the percentage of gang-related murders in the Western Cape has increased from 15.7% of all murders in 2015/16 to 19.3% in 2016/17.

“If these statistics are not a blatant indication of a dire need for drastic police intervention in the Western Cape, I don’t know what is.

“This increase in gang-related murders between these two periods is gravely concerning and indicates the police are failing to combat gang violence in our province. Communities are virtually under siege by stray bullets and gangs which rule the streets and hold gang-affected neighbourhoods to ransom,” Wenger said.

She said gang-related murders now accounted for one in five of all murders in the province.

“This is particularly worrying, considering that the initial decline in the overall contribution of gang-related murders last year has now reversed,” she said.

Between 2011/12 and 2015/16, there were 1 886 reported gang-related murders in the province, she said.

“In that same time frame, the criminal justice system only managed to convict 61 cases successfully – a paltry 3% conviction rate. Similarly, for gang-related attempted murders, between 2011/12 and 2015/16 there were 4 437 gang-related attempted murders in the Western Cape,” she added.

“In this same period, only 113 cases were successfully prosecuted, which, when compared with the number of cases generated in this time, is equivalent to a 3% conviction rate,” she said.

Meanwhile, Corné Mulder, leader of the FF Plus in the Western Cape, said the sudden wave of farm attacks in the province was extremely disturbing.

In the most recent incident, Joubert Conradie, 47, a farmer from Klapmuts, near Stellenbosch, was shot dead on his farm Uitkyk.

“And just 10 days before, Mark Fagan, 46, from Klein Dassenberg, near Philadelphia, was also shot dead. Several weeks ago, a farmer from Ceres in the Cold Bokkeveld was attacked and stabbed with a knife several times in his roadside stall. He survived the attack,” Mulder said.

“At this stage it is not possible to say whether or not the attacks constitute a wave of such crimes in the Western Cape. These three farm attacks, however, have set alarm bells ringing.

“The FF Plus wants to caution local farmers to approach safety on their farms in a new way, to increase security measures and to always be vigilant as farm attacks can occur anywhere in the country,” he said.

“We also request that Agri Western Cape will co-operate with all the other role players to ensure our farmers’ safety,” he said.