Empangeni still a major crime hot spot
ALCOHOL abuse and a total disregard for the law have once again seen Empangeni ranked as one the most dangerous areas in the country, with respect to serious crimes.
The fourth quarterly crime statistics released by Police Minister Bheki Cele last Friday, painted a grim picture of increased crime figures amid severe police staffing shortages.
Empangeni and eSikhaleni (which falls under the Empangeni cluster), featured among the top 30 stations in SA for crimes such as murder, attempted murder, burglaries and kidnapping for the period January to March.
Empangeni ranked 20th for contact crimes, which include murder, sexual offences, assault, assault GBH, common assault and robbery, with 597 cases recorded in a threemonth period.
eSikhaleni ranked 20th for murder with 29 cases - an increase of nine compared to the previous quarter.
Both eSkhaleni and Empangeni made it to the top 30 list for attempted murder.
Assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm was at a high of 164 cases in Empangeni, while 192 common assault cases were recorded.
Residential robbery was at 160 cases, while Empangeni ranked number one in the country for cash-in-transit incidents.
Empangeni SAPS also featured in the top 30 list for kidnapping and arson cases.
Unlike in previous quarters, Empangeni did not feature among the top 30 for sexual offences, but eShowe ranked 20th in the country for rape.
Deeply concerned
King Cetshwayo SAPS spokesperson, Captain Mbongeni Mdlalose told the ZO that police commanders were deeply concerned, but that measures had been put in place to lower the crime rate.
'We cannot deny that officers have left or that many have fallen sick in recent months, but we work with what we have and we do have enough people to get the work done.
'We have increased our visible policing, and we have members going into schools and communities to educate them on crime. We also have crime intelligence members who are feeding us information, and I can confirm that we are making arrests.
In total, there was a 6.6 per cent increase in murder incidents in the country.
This means 389 more people were killed compared to the corresponding period in the previous financial year.
More than 190 of the murders involved domestic violence.
A five per cent increase was recorded for sexual offences as 12 218 people were raped between October and December last year.
This is an increase of 181 cases, amounting to a 1.5 per cent increase compared to the previous reporting period.
More than 4 900 of the rape incidents took place at the homes of victims or the rapists.
Five hundred and seventy cases were domestic violence-related, and 547 rape cases in this category involved female victims and 23 males.
* Open your PixzAR app and scan the framed image to listen to Police Minister Bheki Cele on the latest crime statistics