Acting Police Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia says he is deeply concerned about the notable increase in the murder of police officials.
“Almost 80% of the 23 police officials who lost their lives were off duty,” he said on Friday at the release of the Third Quarterly Crime Statistics in Pretoria.
Cachalia said this was an issue he would ask the South African Police Service (SAPS) management to look into so that they can prevent these deaths from happening.
“Again, firearms remain the single largest weapon driving murder, robbery and organised crime in our country,” he said.
Cachalia said they would be taking additional measures to address the scourge with a focus on removing illegal firearms and preventing legal firearms from falling into the wrong hands.
Speaking about gender -based violence and femicide (GBVF), which has been declared as a national disaster, Cachalia said it demanded that government intensify its efforts to deal with it.
“Much inter-personal, domestic and gender-based violence takes place between people who live with each other or know each other. We are taking steps to strengthen the policing approach to addressing GBVF and other forms of violence,” he said.
The SAPS allocated an additional 999 police members to the Detective Services over the past year.
“While we work to improve law-enforcement, we also need to give attention to implementing the Integrated Crime and Violence Strategy (ICVPS.)
“This requires that different social departments such as Health, Education and Social Development to align their services across levels of government to mitigate the factors that drive crime and violence so that it can be prevented from happening,” the Minister said.
Regarding other crime categories, Cachalia said most violent crime categories, including murder, rape, robbery and most property related crimes like theft and burglary continued to decrease in the period, but remain at unacceptably high levels.
“After more than a decade of annual increases, murder, our most accurate crime statistic started decreasing on the first quarter of 2023-24,” Cachalia said.
He said the trend has continued throughout this year with this quarter showing a 8.7% decrease, or 602 fewer lives lost.
“This means that over the past two years, the numbers of murders for the quarter three period (1 October to 31 December) had dropped by 17.6% or 1 359 fewer murders,” Cachalia said.
The Minister said total contact crime made up of all categories of violent crime started to decrease in the 3rd quarter of 2024-25.
“During this quarter, total violent crime decreased again by 6.7% or 12 682 fewer cases reported to the SAPS when compared to the same quarter last year. Over the past two years, total violent crime for this quarter is down by 8.3% or 15 763 fewer cases. This trend may well be attributable to enhanced policing operations.
“The crime situation also varies substantially across the country. Remember that these are statistical patterns. This does not necessarily translate into a felt sense of security by individuals, families and communities,” the Minister said.
While the country has seen double digit reductions in murder in five provinces, namely KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State and the North West, much smaller decreases were recorded in the Western and Eastern Cape, with slight increases recorded in Limpopo and the Northern Cape.
“And out of the 30 highest murder precincts, decreases were recorded in only 15 of them. The killings relating to gang violence in the Eastern and Western Cape in particular, remain worrisomely high,” he said.
During this quarter, total violent crime decreased again by 6.7% or 12 682 fewer cases reported to the SAPS when compared to the same quarter last year.
Over the past two years, total violent crime for this quarter is down by 8.3% or 15 763 fewer cases. – SAnews.gov.za
