18 318 arrests made in KZN in the past two months for various crimes

Delivering his state of the province speech during the Covid-19 outbreak, KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala said law enforcement officers made 18 318 arrests for various crimes since the declaration of a national state of disaster in March.

He said the total number of arrests consisted of those arrested for breaking government lockdown regulations as well as people who committed “general” crimes.

While there has been a significant drop in crime levels nationally, law enforcement officers arrested quite a number of people during the lockdown in certain areas.

What was more worrisome to Zikalala was the hike in gender-based violence (GBV) during the lockdown, with 449 cases opened.

“Eighty-two women and three men have been admitted to shelters that assist abused women and men. We will have more data on the cases once the Lifeline concludes with its data collection,” he said.

Zikalala said there were about 10 000 law and enforcement officers deployed a day.

He said the officers conducted 2 712 roadblocks in the province to date and a number of arrests were made from these.

The lockdown saw 16 917 cases opened in the province.

The total number of admission of guilt fines issued stood at 6 195.

Total convictions in court by end of March stood at 239, as the courts partially ran services during April.

Zikalala said eight South African Police Services members contracted Covid-19 and one has since died.

A total of 225 schools have been affected by burglary, vandalism and arson; only nine suspects have been arrested.

President Cyril Ramaphosa assured Zikalala government would give special attention to the schools’ issue.

On a national level, police minister Bheki Cele earlier last month welcomed the drop in serious and violent crimes.

Cele believed that the drop was due to the prohibition of the sale and movement of liquor during the lockdown.

He, however, said the number of GBV complaints remained high.

Comparing the first week of the lockdown to the same period in 2019, Cele said that murder cases had dropped from 326 to 94; rape cases from 699 to 101.

Cases of assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm dropped from 2 673 to 456.

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