Crime gets worse in SA

PROVINCIAL: LINK BETWEEN INFECTION RATES AND ILLEGAL INCIDENTS

Increase in syndicates smuggling contraband across SA’s borders.

Police Minister Bheki Cele said yesterday there was a link between the regions with the highest number of arrests and the highest infection rates.

“Provinces with the highest number of arrests for contravention of the lockdown regulations almost mirror the provincial infection rates, with the Western Cape in the lead, followed by Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.”

Cele was giving an update on the levels of compliance and adherence to the Covid-19 lockdown regulations under Level 4.

According to Cele, while there had been an increase in the number of reports filed, cases registered and arrests made, this could be explained by the increase in the movement of people.

“At one point towards the end of April, when we were still on Level 5, we had about 107 000 cases opened with 118 000 people charged,” he said. “This number has more than doubled and is almost at 230 000.”

Liquor and cigarette-related offences, illegal gatherings, failures to remain within one’s place of residence, cross-border and inter-provincial movement, transport-related offences and fraudulent or no permits are the most common infractions.

However, the minister noted that the number of illegal gatherings had gone down.

“The arrested persons were either issued with fines or released with a warning, while some are out on bail and those cases relating to more serious offences are before the respective courts.”

Organised crime syndicates had taken advantage of the lockdown – especially on the ban of alcohol and cigarettes – by expanding their illegal trade into illicit and counterfeit sales.

“We have also observed an increase in smuggling of contraband [liquor and tobacco] between South Africa’s land borders with Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, as well as the sale of these products in the black market.

“Our lockdown partners, the SANDF [National Defence Force] have disrupted some of these illegal operations, mainly along South Africa’s borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and confiscated contraband worth about R1.07 million in March and R1.6 million in April.”

Police had noted increases in some crime categories, such as domestic violence, house and business robberies and hijackings.

“We have compared crime since the lockdown to crime over the same period in 2019.

“The reasons behind the increase or decrease in crime is yet to be determined... However, we do believe that the slight increase is due to the relaxation of the lockdown restrictions, which has seen the increased movement of people and traffic on the road as more companies have gone back to business again.”

Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape were leading hijacking statistics, along with arrests and infection rates.

Other criminal operations have suffered, like cash-in-transit robberies “from 26 to only four incidents”.

Law enforcement managed to make two major drug busts.

“Police in Eastern Cape on Wednesday confiscated [Mandrax and dagga] worth an estimated R4 million during a routine inspection at a health checkpoint outside Middelburg. Two foreign nationals were arrested,” said Cele.

“On Monday, members of the Hawks [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation] intercepted a truck en route to Cape Town and found a container of cocaine worth over R30.4 million. A suspect, 37, was arrested.”

The increase is due to the relaxation of the lockdown, which has seen the increased movement of people and traffic on the road.