By: Natasha Archary

Sexual offences and murder rates have dropped in South Africa in the 1st Quarter, but Police Minister Bheki Cele said this isn’t cause for celebration.
Cele delivered the latest crime statistics for the country on Friday, 18 August in Pretoria, noting a decrease in murder, property related and contact crimes between April and June 2023.
However, the Police Minister said that while the murder rate showed a decline of 3.1%, during the period mentioned above, 1 188 women and children were murdered.
The total number of murders were 6 228, and Cele said more needs to be done to protect the most vulnerable in the country, namely women and children.
This was the first time since 2020 that the murder rate dropped, but there was a 7% increase in attempted murder cases in the country.
Apart from murder, sexual offences decreased by 2.0%, with sexual assault numbers declining by 3.8%.
Gauteng remains the province with the highest number of contact crimes over the past year, with 2 420 more reports than there were between April to June 2022.
Hijackings, robberies at residential and non-residential properties all decreased by 5.2%.
The full crime statistics can be found on the SAPS website.
The quarter one crime statistics show a 3.1% decline in the murder rate. All Sexual Offences decreased by 3.9%. Contact-Related Crimes decreased by 5.1% and all Property-Related Crimes decreased by 20.8%. #CrimeStats pic.twitter.com/QwDvx3Ka9G
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) August 18, 2023



