Crime efficacy hampered by internal chaos
But what Zinn and Newham both point out is that police effectiveness is being hampered by the chaos in the organisation’s crime intelligence department. This, they said stems from Richard Mdluli’s suspension.”You also have a situation where the Hawks don’t trust their boss, who have political dynamics under mining the police,” said Newham.
The Northern Cape saw a 13.6% decrease in murder, Limpopo (12.1%), Free State (7.2%), Eastern Cape (1.8%), and North West (0.7%).
Attempted murder nationally was down 0.8%, with decreases ranging from a 17.5% decrease in the Northern Cape to 3.1% in KwaZulu-Natal.
Sexual offences were down 6.3%, with 37 630 cases reported. However, in the Western Capecases increased 0.3%.
The problem with sexrelated crimes, said Newham is that it is under- reported.
Andre Snyman, the founder of eBlockwatch, said hijackers were typically involved in a trio of crimes.
“The trend is that hijackings and house robberies have become interlinked. They hijack you, rob your home and then kidnap you and take you to an ATM where they force you to draw money, and then wait till midnight and force you to draw more money. It’s like a one-stop shop for them.
“These crimes have become very integrated, and organised at an almost corporate level. These guys are capitalising on one incident – starting with hijacking – which lessens their risk.”
MPs expressed concer n about the continuing increase in trio crimes, with Police Minister Nathi Nhleko agreeing police needed to place a greater focus on preventing these crimes.
“Indeed, we should all of us be concerned,” he said.
“We need to definitely deal with this problem.”
The minister said SAPS’s back to basics approach should also be commended. It helped lower the statistics, he said.
“I think it is correct that we need to observe that there have been a number of significant strikes that have been registered on the side of the police service precisely because of the back to basics campaign
“In certain areas, we are beginning to experience better levels of performance.
“However, there is no reason for complacency. We must still do better,” he said.
Acting National Police Commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane said just because there had been a drop in contact crime nationally, “now was not the time to relax”.
He said extraordinary measures were initiated to cap the increase in crime – and these had yielded results.
“One of the problems was contact crimes, and in there we have murder. I know a lot is being written about murder being on the increase,” he said.
It was a problem and this was where the focus needed to be. The previous year police had concentrated on contact crimes, and these are now decreasing.
He said this showed that the situation was being addressed.
Yesterday, President Jacob Zuma said the time has come to change the laws of South Africa and protect victims of crime.
He told the House of Traditional Leaders in Parliament that he was seriously considering tabling laws that would make it harder for criminals to be released.
“Our people cannot co-exist with crime, drug trafficking, hijackings, robbery, rape and all other horrible crimes… We have tolerated it for too long. It is not acceptable that we cannot protect our people.” – Additional reporting by Sheree Bega