Earlier this morning, the Minister of Police, Mr. Nathi Mthethwa, released the latest crime statistics amidst mixed feelings from the public and security sector institutions.
According to SAPS (South African Police Service) research task team, the current statistics report partly highlights top five most serious crimes (murder, attempted murder, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, common assault and Sexual offences) with the following figures:
- Sexual offences ( 64 514 cases for 2013 and 66 196 for 2012)
- Attempted murder (14 859 cases for 2013 and 15 493 for 2012)
- Murder (15 609 cases for 2013 and 15 940 for 2012)
- Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm (192 651 cases for 2013 and 198 602 for 2012)
- Common Assault (181 670 cases for 2013 and 185 891 for 2012)
All of the above mentioned crimes are by and large crimes committed from “person to person”, i.e. human contact crimes, which in their very nature spells out a concern about the state human relations amongst society. Cumulatively, there has been a decrease of human contact crime by 38.2% over the past nine years.
“The current statistics on human contact crimes, especially on sexual offences may tell various narratives within the context of gender based violence. These statistics are important for institutions such as the CGE and stakeholders to understand the magnitude of challenges that face us within our work, and thus they partly become a barometer to measure the gains or losses against our current efforts” said Mfanozelwe Shozi, Chairperson of the CGE.
The SAPS report on crime statistics further point to a decrease of rape (within sexual offences) by 3.3% over the past 4 years and only 0.4% in the past financial year. The nominal decrease of sexual offences denotes the need to rapidly advance all efforts and interventions that are aimed at dealing with the scourge of sexual offences and/or gender based violence.
With reference to Statistics SA’s report on Victims of Crime Survey (2012), it is important to note that a large proportion (44,1%) of the victims (from selected individuals within the sample) of sexual offences are often attacked by known community members, thus, the report also deduce that sexual offences are often difficult to capture due to their sensitivity, and as a result they are normally under reported.
The CGE therefore encourages the public to make use of its toll free number 0800 007 709, to report any matter that relates to gender based violence and in turn their safety and privacy will be guaranteed. Alternatively, members of the public may also visit CGE offices which are based in all nine provinces to report such cases.
