SA murder rate up by 5%

GOVERMENT leaders put on a brave face when presenting South Africa’s shocking official crime statistics yesterday, but opposition groups tore into them.

Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko, his deputy Maggy Sotya and SAPS commissioner general Riah Phiyega tried to argue that South Africa’s crime percentages had dropped by 20.1% since 2004.

They also announced that StatsSA and the auditor-general were being brought in to help counter public perception that the statistics lacked credibility.

Top of the terrifying list of violence was an increase in the national murder rate by 5%.

DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said: “This works out at 47 murders a day, which is what one would expect to be reported from a country at war.”

The statistics showed national increases in attempted murder (4.6%), robbery with aggravating circumstances (12.7%) while common robbery remained high.

Drug crime went up a staggering 26%, car-jackings rose by 12%, and bank robberies increased by 200% although this was an increase of 14 heists up to 21 for the year, compared to a high-point of 144 in 2007/8.

In another worrying trend, trio crimes (home and business robberies and car-jackings) rose 10.8%, with 260 460 homes burgled.

On a positive note, the government’s crime-fighting bosses said the number of reported sexual offences dropped by 5.6%, but Kohler said: “NGOs tell us that only one in 20 rape victims reports a rape because they don’t trust the police.”

Among the success stories was a decline in common assault (3.3%), assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm (1.5%), and theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles dropped by 2.6%, although theft out of motor vehicles rose by 3% with 143 812 incidents. Stock theft declined by 6.2%. Gareth Newham, of the Institute of Security Studies said that for two years the country had suffered increases in murders, attempted murder and aggravated robbery.

“We urgently need a new approach to reduce violence and crime,” said Newham.

He called on the SAPS to focus on reducing aggravated robbery and implementing the national development plan which includes professionalising the force.

National institute for crime prevention and the reintegration of offenders’s Jacques Sibomana said the country was moving backwards. He called for preventive anti-crime programmes such as family support and intensive therapy for parents and children demonstrating “challenging behaviour”. — mikel@dispatch.co.za