Some crimes increased in the west

Despite tough talk by authorities, most recent crime statistics show that some crimes in the west of Pretoria have dropped only marginally while others sadly increased.

This follows after the police, along with Stats SA, published the country’s crime statistics for 2018/19 last Thursday.

At the Atteridgeville police station, some crimes showed an increase while others dropped.

• Murder dropped by one, with 58 crimes reported this year, compared to 59 murders reported last year.
• Sexual offences increased with 132 cases reported this year. This is compared to 118 reported last year.
• Attempted murder also decreased with 77 cases reported this year compared to 98 cases last year.
• Assault with the intention to cause grievous bodily harm dropped with 372 cases reported this year, compared to 388 cases reported last year.
• Common assault, however, saw a drastic drop with 405 cases reported this year, compared to 576 reported last year.
• One-hundred-and-thirty cases of common robbery were reported at the police station this year, compared to 197 last year.
• Robbery with aggravating circumstances also decreased.
• Four-hundred-and-thirty-three cases were reported this year, with 586 reported last year.
• At the Hercules police precinct, most cases reported saw a drop.
• Murder decreased with four, with seven murders reported this year, compared to 11 murders reported last year.
• Sexual offences increased with 63 cases reported this year. This is compared to 56 reported last year.
• Attempted murder also decreased with 17 cases reported this year.
• Last year, 19 cases were reported at the police station.
• Assault with the intention to cause grievous bodily harm increased with 231 cases reported this year, compared to 197 cases reported last year.
• Common assault decreased with 340 cases reported this year, compared to 355 reported last year.
• Eighty-eight cases of common robbery was reported at the police station this year, compared to 103 reported last year.
• Robbery with aggravating circumstances increased.
• There were 179 cases reported this year and 176 reported last year.

At the Pretoria West police station, most crimes saw an increase.

• Murder increased with one, with 17 crimes reported this year, compared to 16 crimes reported last year.
• Sexual offences dropped with 77 cases reported this year, compared to 83 last year.
• Attempted murder, however, increased with 29 cases reported this year.
• Last year, 22 cases were reported at the police station.
• Assault with the intention to cause grievous bodily harm increased with 204 cases reported this year, compared to 201 cases last year.
• Common assault increased with 422 cases reported this year, compared to 403 reported last year.
• There were 145 cases of common robbery reported at the police station this year, compared to 178 last year.
• Robbery with aggravating circumstances increased. There were 499 cases reported this year and 440 reported last year.

AfriForum has expressed concern about the 2018/2019 crime statistics.

“The media is riddled with negative articles on the poor state of the police,” said AfriForum legal and risk manager Marnus Kamfer.

“Police lost over 9.5-million rounds of ammunition and 4 357 firearms over the past six financial years.

“They were also instructed by the national treasury to reduce their budget by five percent (R5-billion), six percent (R6.5-billion) and seven percent (R7.8-billion) in the next three financial years.”

Kamfer said only police minister Bheki Cele and president Cyril Ramaphosa were “generally shocked and surprised by facts long known to other South Africans”.

“Police have had five different national commissioners over the past 10 years,” he said.

“Ordinary police officers are daily victims of a failing government and police service leadership.

“A lack of ammunition to complete firearms competency and a lack of rape-kits at police stations were only the most recent examples of how their important work is being sabotaged by an uncaring, incompetent department and top management.”

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