Shocking levels of murder and carjacking in South Africa
The South African Police Service has released the crime statistics for 2016, showing that the country’s murder rate and cases of carjacking have increased over the 12 months covered.
According to the data, overall crime in South Africa has decreased between 2015 and 2016, with 2.1 million crimes reported in the 12 months measured.
Provincially, Limpopo and Mpumalanga crime levels increased, while all other provinces decreased. The Northern Cape remained stable, the SAPS said.
However, two statistics stand out in murder and carjacking, which have increased by 3.2% and 14.3% over the 12 month review, respectively.
The Institute of Security Studies published two infographics showing how these crimes have been spread across the country.
Gauteng remains the biggest hotspot for carjackings, while the Eastern Cape has overtaken the Western Cape as the province with the highest murder rate.
Community reported crimes
The majority of some 2 million charges laid at police stations in the last year were reported by the community, as opposed to being detected by police, Parliament heard on Friday.
Around 1.7 million charges (83%) were serious crimes reported by South Africans between April 2015 and March this year, crime research and statistics head Major General Norman Sekhukhune told Parliament´s police portfolio committee.
Police detected the remaining 17%.
Contact crimes (crimes against a person) constituted the most charges, at 35.2%.
This was followed by property-related crimes (30.7%), other serious crimes (27%) and contact-related crimes (7%).
Contact-related crimes were arson and malicious damage to property cases.
Sekhukhune said the overall analysis depicted notable progress in reducing community-reported crimes.
He confirmed the statistics report was quality assessed by the technical working team, composed of Stats SA and police members.
With News24
More on crime
How much money violent crime costs South Africa every year
Crime stats to be released quarterly
Loading ...