While Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has revealed the crime stats for the country, we delve into how those stats affect Ladysmith.

Ladysmith police station stats

Some surprise facts…

The statistics speak volumes if you read them correctly. To sensationalize the stats, we can say that there has been a 153% increase in business robberies. Or add that there has been a 75% increase in residential (home) robberies.

But we really need to look at Trio crimes  to get a full picture (carjacking, house robbery and business robbery are widely known as trio crimes).

A 90% increase is not good. Aggravated assault also increased by 84%.

But we have some rather odd stats as well. Thankfully no increase in bank robberies, cash-in-transit heists, sexual assault or truck hijackings.

The clever use of sub-categories helps diffuse some of the stat categories, but basically 15 types of crime are down in number, including murder, attempted murder and rape. 16 types of crime are up, including sexual offences, carjacking and aggravated assault.

An anomaly in the results is the 100% decline in the police’s ability to spot sexual offences.

Obviously, these are only Ladysmith stats and if Elandslaagte, Ezakheni, Ekuvukeni, Bergville, Winterton and Van Reenen were thrown into the mix, the picture would change completely.

Also see: People do not feel safer

Also read: #Crimestats: 10 latest crime statistics in South Africa

Both Bergville and Ladysmith make it into the top 30 stations with high stock-theft figures. Bergville is in the top 10 and Ladysmith number 11.

Ladysmith also makes the top 30 with attempted sexual offences as well.

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