Too many people in SA live under siege from crime
Minister lambastes ‘lazy’ SAPS, determined to fight corruption, criminality
THE National Development Plan’s Outcome 3 states that: “In 2030, all people living in South Africa feel safe, have no fear of crime, are properly served by the police and courts, and know corruption no longer eats away at their livelihoods.”
I am aware that crime involves high emotions. We must not see these statistics just as numbers. Behind the numbers are real feelings, real lives, real hurt, real harm, real losses, deaths, feelings of unsafety – these statistics represent the memory of that gruesome rape or murder, the fearful home invasion and loss of property. These numbers have consistently said no community can claim it lives in safety and feels safe.
Our people are losing their children from heinous crimes, drug gangs fighting for turf, people have no-go areas due to criminality and violence.
I acknowledge that most people live under siege from crime. Crime is delivering terror and grave harm to our people and the economy.
I am aware that it is important to understand there will never be a victory lap until such time that our people feel safe and are indeed safe. Safe from crime, safe from fear of crime, in particular violent crime.
All this makes statistics a very important tool in the fight against crime. We simply cannot fight an enemy we do not understand. We get to understand the patterns, the occurrences and types of crimes through these statistics so that we may plan accordingly.
The SAPS national crime statistics measure 21 serious crimes. Seventeen are reported by the community and the other four are detected as a result of police-initiated operations. Put differently, the 17 crime categories are supposed to decrease, while the others, which are illegal possession of firearms and ammunition; driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs; possession of and dealing in drugs; and sexual offences – are supposed to increase as a result of police action or detection.
Community-reported serious crimes have continually decreased from 2007/08 to 2016/17
However, the contact crime figures which reflected a consistent decrease in the first half of the 10-year period under discussion have increased over the preceding three financial years. In the financial year under review a reversal is observed and a decrease was recorded.
Robbery is not only considered a more policeable crime than the other contact crimes, but also increasingly considered an important contributor to other contact crimes. Some of the sub-categories of robbery with aggravating circumstances; namely the “trio crimes” (carjacking, house robbery and business robbery), including hijackings, which are to a greater extent organised in nature.
Analysis by the national and provincial offices revealed that most “trio crimes” are organised and need a different approach to end them.
Research has further shown that the majority of contact crimes are social in nature and occur among people who know one another. It is for this reason extremely difficult, if not impossible in some cases, for the SAPS alone to reduce or prevent the levels of such crimes.
This calls for structured partnerships with other stakeholders such as the Department of Social Development, NGOs, Community Policing Forums, Community Safety Forums and everyone in our society – each citizen.
I wish to emphasise the need to involve society in campaigns to create awareness about the dangers of substance abuse and alcohol abuse.
In the financial year under review, 2016/17, about 2.1 million serious crime counts were recorded, of which 1 738 980 were community-reported. The latter decreased by 1.8% compared with the 2015/16 financial year.
This decrease was driven mainly by reductions in all broad categories – contact-related crime (3.3%), contact crime (2.4%), other serious crime (2.0%) and property-related crime (0.5%). Contact crime experienced a reversal from the 1.0% increase recorded the preceding financial year.
Contact crime decreased by 2.4% in 2016/17. The decrease resulted in the figure for the 17 community-reported crimes decreasing to a level lower than three years previously when the figures started to increase.
• Contact-related crime fell by 3.3% in 2016/17, following a decrease of 0.8% during the preceding financial year and an increase of 1.9% recorded during 2014/15 .
• Property-related crime showed a decrease of 0.5% in 2016/17. This follows decreases of 1.8% and 0.8% respectively during the two preceding financial years.
• Other serious crimes decreased by 2% in 2016/17, following decreases of 4.1% in 2015/16 and 2.2% during 2014/15.
Crimes considered indicators as a result of police action, experienced a reversal from a drop of 0.3% in the preceding financial year to an increase of 9.6%.
This increase is too small and are indicative of the lazy efforts by the police to detect such crime. Police in this instance are letting our people down and I am here to stop it.
Cash in transit crimes are going up – on the other hand the financial institutions are not investing properly in the high assets in transit. Sabrix and banks must invest more in proper equipment and inform SAPS of high value cargo well in time for planning. Internal hiring in these companies must accompany deeper security vetting, lie-detector tests and other methods.
Rendering the money useless is important. I am told banks stopped using dye because of costs. This is not acceptable.
Efforts to deal with the high levels of crime in the country continued to find further expression in several practical initiatives such as Operation Festive Season, Operation Paseka, Operation Fiela and Operation Coastal Dragon.
Crime should be addressed by all of us as an issue of national interest and priority. Crime knows no race, no creed, no religion and certainly no social strata.
When I send a message to these violent criminals, I mean it, and I am communicating in the language that these violent men who rape and murder understand. I am saying to criminal gangs; “Nilibambe
Lingashoni – I am coming for you hard, enough is enough.”
We have relaunched specialised units to focus on drugs, rape, violent threats and violent criminals. We are enhancing our technological capacity to match the evolved digital technology arena.
Yes, we have a 1.8% drop in crime, but I do not feel it, and our people do not feel it, and they are correct. We have a drop in sexual violence, but we have more and more pictures of our women going missing. People must feel the drop in crime where they live.
We have no time to waste – we are still on the road towards safe communities.
The SAPS has an acute lack of leadership from station level up. The customer service is appalling. Police Stations and 10111 are the places at which service delivery begins. Police must treat our people courteously and with sensitivity. The #MyPoliceStation Campaign came about as a result of people being treated badly in police stations. Police treat our people as a nuisance.
Let me be clear, our people do pay for your living and they are your clients and customers as policemen.