Gauteng police commissioner Elias Mawela has revealed that crime in the province has decreased by 2.6% between July and September.
Mawela indicated that even though there was marked improvement, the province remains the highest contributor to crime in the country.
Mawela presented the statistics before the provincial legislature’s community safety portfolio committee on Thursday, saying he remains concerned about murder rates which remain sky-high in the province with over 1 600 people murdered in the period under review.
Mawela’s crime report comes just a week after his superior, Minister of Police, Bheki Cele released the official national crime stats for the second quarter of 2023 to parliament’s portfolio committee.
Cele said during this time, South Africa had recorded an increase in attempted murder cases, with 6 911 cases reported between 1 July and end of September 2023 – 756 more than the same period last year.
Cele and National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola briefed Parliament’s portfolio committee on police on the second quarter crime statistics last Friday.
Mawela indicated that, the overall category of contact crimes increased with a small margin of 38 counts, which translates to an increase of 0.1%.
He said the increase in contact crimes is mainly attributed to robbery with aggravating circumstances and attempted murder.
Statistics also show attempted murder numbers increased by 140 counts, translating to 8.9%.
“Attempted murder increased by 140 counts which translates to 8.9%. Crime detected as a result of police action includes illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and drug-related offences,” Mawela said.
The provincial commission said even though the recent data has indicated that rape cases reported to police have decreased by 7.4% between July and September in Gauteng this year, this was not worth celebrating.
“We are grateful that we have reduced, but we can’t celebrate because there are still people who are victims of rape. It is our call, it is our wish that we don’t want anybody to be raped. One rape is just one rape too many for us.”
To make the province a safe one for everyone, Mawela called on Gauteng residents to play their part in helping reduce the burden of crime, especially when it comes to domestic violence, assault and other preventable crime categories.
“So robbery with aggravating circumstances, yes the police let’s deal with it. But common assault and assault with grievous bodily harm are in the hands of the citizens, in the hands of all of us. If we can’t stop beating each other up, then surely we won’t contribute to 27.2% of the overall crime stats.”
On Thursday, the DA, citing the Safety First: The Economic Cost of Crime in South Africa report released on Wednesday, has slammed the government’s approach to solving crime with DA shadow minister of finance, Dion George saying the World Bank has highlighted that the staggering cost of crime has cost the country up to 10% of its GDP.
“For 2023, this cost is conservatively estimated at R700 billion, nearly three times the amount the government spends on healthcare and R600 million more than the entire Police budget itself. The breakdown of these costs includes 2.6% of GDP from theft, 4.2% from protection costs like security and insurance, 1.8% from opportunity costs such as reduced tourism and increased transportation expenses, and 1% from foregone developmental public spending due to excessive government expenditure on crime prevention,” George said.
The Star