Pretoria – Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa says South Africa's overall crime rate continues to decline against the country’s growing population.
Releasing the National Crime Statistics on Thursday, Mthethwa said there were 896 298 serious crime arrests in 2012/13 compared to 777 140 during the 2011/12 reporting period.
Police convicted 352 513 people for serious crimes, while there were 307 580 convictions in 2011/12.
Contact crime has decreased by 38.2% over nine years, 16% during the past four years and 4.2% during the past financial year of 2012/13, said Mthethwa.
While the murder rate reduced by 27.2% over nine years, with a further reduction of 16.6% during the past four years, Mthethwa said there was a slight increase of 0.6% during the past financial year (2012/13). Mthethwa further announced an increase in attempted murder of 6.5% during the past financial year.
He said the police would double their efforts to fight this crime.
“We will work harder to ensure this slight increase is re-routed to the downward trends that we experienced over the past nine years.”
He said the period had been characterised by growing unity in action against crime, a period focused on improving life conditions for all, especially the poor.
Crimes committed against women also decreased by 11.1 % to 175 880 when compared to the 2009/10 period, when there were 197 877 cases.
Mthethwa said rape has decreased by 3.3% in past four years and 0.4% this year. This number, he said, was still unacceptably high.
There was a 34.6% decrease in ATM bombings, from 399 cases to a reduction of 261 cases.
Mthethwa said the stats were proof that police interventions were yielding the desired effects. However, there was still a long way to go to rid South Africa of crime.
"Our journey since apartheid gives us confidence that we will reach a crime-free society." - SAnews.gov.za
