Crime stats: DA blasts police inefficiency

THE release of the latest crime statistics, which shows that crime has increased by 1.6% has seen the DA taking shots at the SAPS, accusing the service of suffering from “chronic under-training, under-staffing, under resourcing and under-equipping”, which it coined as the four U’s.

But the ANC welcomed the release of the statistics, saying that it showed government’s crime-fighting efforts.

The ANC’s caucus spokesperson, Nonceba Mhlauli, said even though there was a decline in some crimes, crime fighting remains one of the party’s priorities.

“We are confident that government will indeed continue to deepen its progressive crime-fighting strategies in this regard to ensure that South Africans are not only safe, but also feel safe.”

The DA’s spokesperson on police, Zakhele Mbhele, slammed the statistics as “shockingly revealing that violent and organised crimes tragically continues to increase and there have been 52 murders, 109 rapes and 46 hijacking victims every day in South Africa”.

Mbhele said the figures reveal SAPS’ inability to tackle organised crime and syndicates due to a lack of skilled investigative capacity, to ensure high detection and conviction rates.

“The four U’s combined with poor leadership, low professionalism and weak accountability in the police service all mean that the SAPS is unable to get on and successfully bring crime down.”

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula expressed unhappiness at the figures, saying these these revealed the “lazy efforts” of police officers.

“This increase is too small and indicative of the lazy efforts by the police to detect such crime, in order to make South Africa a safer place to live in.

“Yes, we have a 1.8% drop in crime, 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.”

EFF national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi also blasted the statistics as glossing over the real crime issues.

“These statistics however, rely on reported cases to the police stations in our country.

“Thus, they only give a limited idea of the levels of crime and not the true picture of crime in South Africa.”

Ndlozi said crimes of sexual assault, in particular against children, are under- represented by the statistics for the obvious reason that many victims did not report crimes to the police.

“The statistics that matter if we are to restore public confidence and trust in our police, are those of resolving reported crimes.

“This includes the efficiency in terms of speed and precision.

“Our police are among the most unprofessional, inefficient and unreliable public servants with little ability to investigate and combat crime.”