EC SLAYING OF VULNERABLE ON THE RISE
730 women and children slayed in a year, money trucks targeted too
The Eastern Cape was flagged as the second-most murderous province in SA for women and children.
The latest crime statistics released in Cape Town on Tuesday by police minister Bheki Cele revealed that 730 women and children were killed in the Eastern Cape in the 12 months between April 2017 and March this year.
This was the second highest number of women and children slain in a province, behind KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), where 886 women and children were killed.
The total reported murders in the Eastern Cape increased to 3,815 from the 3,628 killed last financial year, which is an increase of 187 bodies.
The murder breakdown is: 730 women and children – 550 women, 137 boys and 43 girls.
In KZN 886 women and children were murdered, in Gauteng 657 and in the Western Cape 649.
Cele’s report reveals that 3,915 women and children were murdered in SA.
Of this total, 2,930 were women and 985 children. The Eastern Cape accounted for 18.6% of the total.
There were 20,336 people murdered in SA and 40,000 reported rape cases.
There were 36,730 women and 23,488 children sexually assaulted in SA.
There were 3,554 cases of attempted murder of women reported, and 1,059 of young boys and girls.
Cele’s report further reveals that in SA 53,263 women and 7,562 children were grievously assaulted, while 81,142 women and 10,446 children were victims of common assault.
In the Eastern Cape five stations were on the list of 30 stations in SA that reported the highest number of murders.
After Mthatha at ninth place with 160, Bethelsdorp comes in at number 13 with 127 murders, KwaZakhele at 17th with 104, Lusikisiki at 22 with 97 murders, and Ngqeleni police station in the 28th spot with 90 murders.
Only Lusikisiki experienced a decline in murder cases – 18 less than the year before.
Ten Western Cape stations are on the list, followed closely by Gauteng with nine stations and KZN with six.
Nyanga police station in Cape Town is the highest nationally, with 308 murder dockets.
There were 46 cases in the Eastern Cape where two people were killed at the same time, three cases where three people were killed, and one case each in which four, five and six people respectively were killed in the same incident.
More than 80 of the Eastern Cape’s 3,815 murders were gang related.
There were 39 taxi violence killings, three farm murders and 72 cases of “mob justice”, the report revealed.
Thirteen people were killed by police officers.
The province saw a 0.5% increase in sexual offences, a 6.9% increase in sexual assault cases, and a 5.8% increase in attempted murder.
However, there was a 6.6% decrease in common robbery.
There was a decrease of 0.2% in reported rape cases: they declined by 15 from 6,836 in 2016-17 to 6,821 in 2017-18.
Truck hijackings rose 12.2% from 82 to 92 and there was a 4.6% rise in car hijackings.
Cele reported a 0.6% decline in robbery of residential premises and a 1.1% decrease in robberies at non-residential places in the province.
East London police station is number seven on the list of 30 stations in SA that recorded the highest number of robberies in non-residential areas.
The report further shows that there has been an increase in illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and drug related crimes.
On the decline are arson cases, malicious damage to property, burglary at residential and non-residential premises, commercial crimes, shoplifting, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and theft of motor vehicles.
In the past 10 years there have been 257,322 reported cases of burglary at residential premises in the province and 63,602 cases of stock theft.
Mthatha police station is ninth on the list of the worst 30 stations when it comes to murder.
It recorded 160 murder cases – an increase of 33 cases from the previous year’s 127 dockets.
The highest number of stock theft cases were in the Eastern Cape, with Mthatha at the top of the list.
Six of the 10 police stations – including the top four – Mthatha, Maluti, Sulenkama and Qumbu – reporting the most cases in SA are from the Eastern Cape.
Robbers in the Eastern Cape have also followed the trend of targeting money meant for automated machines.
They did not rob a single bank, and instead went for money vans. There was a sharp increase of 109.1% in cash-in-transit robberies – from 11 to 23. In the past 10 years, 21 bank robberies were reported, compared to 275 cashin-transit robberies and 451 truck hijackings.
The Eastern Cape was flagged as the second-most murderous province in SA for women and children