Police Minister Bheki Cele has described the latest crime statistics as not reading very well, as they show an increase in murder and rape cases between January and March this year.
Murder has increased by 22.2% from 4976 in the same period in the previous year to 6083 in 2022. Rape also increased by 13.7% when compared to the same period last year. A total of 10 818 rape cases were recoded during the first three months of this year.
Lieutenant-General Norman Sekhukhune told members of the parliament’s portfolio committee police on Friday, that serious and violent crimes have increased. He said Umlazi, Plessislaer and Inanda are the top three police stations which recorded the highest murder cases. Other crimes such as cash-in-transit have also increased, he added.
Cape Town Central police station was top of the list of the 30 police stations which recoded the highest number of serious crimes in the first quarter of 2022. The station recorded 2,653 serious crimes between January and March 2022- an increase of 54.2% from last year.
Honeydew station in Gauteng was second as it recorded 2,149 -an increase of 5.6%- followed by Durban Central which recorded 2,037-and increase of 11.9%.
The figures show an increase in serious and violent crimes despite Cele telling the National Council of Provinces that his department was channelling more resources into the top 30 police stations. The cases of murder and rape were mostly recorded in Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Cele said more than 10 000 police officers were already training, and another 5000 officers would be hired in the next phase of recruitment.
Source: IOL, Times Live, image from Twitter