Durban crime hot spots

Red-flagged areas top national list

DURBAN police precincts feature prominently in the national crime figures, with one area, Phoenix, in the top 10 countrywide in overall number of crimes.

Durban Central ranked 4th and Phoenix 9th in the national crime statistics released at the weekend, showing a combined total of almost 25 000 reported crimes.

Although KwaZulu-Natal recorded a 2% decrease in overall number of crimes, for the period April 2015 to March this year, murder and attempted murder both increased by 3.1% in the province.

This was of concern, said Mxolisi Kaunda, MEC for Community Safety and Liaison.

“…We have to work harder on this category to ensure that there is noticeable decrease.”

Phoenix, according to ranking of the official figures by crimestatssa.com, had the third-highest number of common assault cases reported (1 426 cases) and the highest number of malicious damage to property (742) and drug-related crime cases (2 653).

Drugs

Drugs were driving crime in the area, said Glen Naidoo.

The former police officer established rapid response unit VIP Protection Services 10 years ago, which focuses on Phoenix.

Naidoo said it came as no surprise that his home area had ranked among the worst in the country.

“Over the years there has been a definite increase in crime here. In Phoenix drugs are big business. Most of the crime here is drug related, drug induced… and the community is fed up.

“Now the danger in that is that it gets people emotional and they turn to vigilantism.”

That people were taking the law into their own hands also showed their lack of confidence in the police.

“Our rapid response units are getting to crimes scenes much quicker than police.

“We acknowledge that this is mainly because we are only a rapid response unit and investigate… they have a lot more on their hands.”

Inefficient management and corruption also made police in the north Durban area less effective.

But the bigger problem, said Naidoo, was that there was only one police station, which he said had not grown in 10 years, but serviced a vast area to which suburbs kept getting added.

The large area and population needed to be considered in crime statistics, said KZN violence monitor, Mary de Haas.

Phoenix has a population of 176 989 according to the 2011 census.

Two of Durban’s largest townships, Inanda and uMlazi, had among the highest number of contact crimes reported as well as sexual crimes reported, of all police precincts in the country.

The 227 attempted murders and 1 265 assaults with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm reported in uMlazi were the most of any precinct in the country.

Inanda and Empangeni were also among the top 10 for this type of assault.

More murders were reported in KwaZulu-Natal than any other province in the country with the Western Cape and Gauteng featuring in the top three in most crimes reported in the crime stats.

A total of 169 murders were reported in Inanda, 155 in uMlazi and 128 in KwaMashu E section.

Alarming as the statistics may seem, the way they were presented was problematic, said De Haas.

“For comparative purposes, it would be more meaningful if the stats were broken down per 100 000 population. uMlazi has a high population, it’s a large township with only two police stations.”

Nevertheless, the number of murders was too high and De Haas believes one of the contributing factors is the “bad policing”.

“A lot of those killings were at Glebelands (Hostel).

“I have dealt with uMlazi police on the Glebelands issue and part of the problem is that they don’t help people who are illegally evicted, assaulted – in fact, the police have been implicated in torture.

“There are a lot of members who are quite helpful and try to do their jobs but the problem is with detectives and crime intelligence, which are the two key factors to having a real impact on crime.

“Police in uMlazi have a bad name, and it’s been like that for years,” she said.

Kaunda said “radical and immediate action” was needed to create a crime-free province.

“In this regard, I will be meeting the police management in KwaZulu-Natal and briefing the provincial executive council.

“We will all analyse the entire statistics and develop a plan to address the crime situation in the province,” he said.