The South African Police Service on Friday reported a general decrease in violent crime, but murder increased by 1.4%.
Police Minister Bheki Cele presented the crime statistics to Parliament’s police oversight committee on Friday morning.
While there’s a been a slight decrease in serious crime, murder continues to be a problem.
Murder is up by 1.4% – which amounts to over 21,000 people killed between April 2019 and March 2020.
Police committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson questioned the police’s long-term strategy to reduce violent crime.
“Serious violent crimes like murder and sexual offences have increased, and increases add up to a bigger increase. How are we going to reduce violent crimes by 50% over the next nine years if the murder and rapes keep going up?”
DA police spokesperson Andrew Whitfield said the rape statistics were “alarming”.
“Can we please get very specific and detailed answers on that, because it paints a very alarming picture and we need to walk away from this meeting with a clear understanding of what that picture is.”
OFM News
