By: Natasha Archary
Police Minister Bheki Cele released the fourth quarter crime statistics on Tuesday, 30 May, noting that there have been over 6 200 murders between January and March 2023.
With an increase of 3.4%, this is an average of 2 096 murders per month and/or 70 murders per day, of which 245 children were victims of murder.
KwaZulu-Natal leads the provinces with the most number of murders during the three month period with 1 589 murders reported.
Gauteng follows closely behind at 1 556 murders, followed by the Eastern Cape with 1 112 murders.
The South African Police Union spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale responds to the latest Crime Stats on Point of View with Phemelo Motene.
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In addition, there were 43 090 assault cases with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.
Delivering the latest crime stats from Cape Town, Cele once again promised that there would be more police visibility and provincial operations to tackle the rising crime in the country.
The Minister acknowledged that there was a slight improvement in sexual offences which decreased by 4.3% overall.
However, there was a significant rise in cash-in-transit heists, with a 20.8% increase during the fourth quarter.
“Criminal lockdowns have been adopted by all provincial commissioners and are guided by crime intelligence and crime trends and analysis.
More boots on the ground are pushing back on criminality, through provincial intelligence-led operations to take down individuals or criminal syndicates hell-bent on terrorizing communities.”
Cele said the Gauteng-based operation O kae Molao, is an example of such initiatives. O kae Molao has been in operation for the past five years, creating a lock down of space for criminals to operate.
National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said as much as there was an increase in murder, it was a small rise and the police are doing everything to combat crime.
“We are doing our best in terms of combating crime, in terms of operations that we are holding country-wide, we ensure that every weekends, especially during peak times where we know crimes are happening, we are deployed and conducting raids.
There are raids at liquor outlets where we know these crimes are happening, especially taverns were most of these crimes are generated.
We will continue with those weekly operations to decrease these crimes, but however, take note that not all these crimes happen in public.
There are some murders that happen in public but others are taking place in social environments and in private spaces where police won’t be there.”
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