Police minister releases shocking crime stats
Between January and March this year, 1107 people were killed.
Murder, sexual violence and assaults continued to rise across the country, according to crime statistics recently released by police minister Bheki Cele.
Cele, who briefed the media at Tshedimosetso House in Pretoria last Friday, said the first quarter was violent, brutal and unsafe for many South Africans.
“The triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment, increasingly encouraged opportunistic criminal behaviour,” he said.
“The festive season was safer, but the same cannot be said about the first few months of this year.”
Cele said murder, attempted murder and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) of women all recorded double-digit increases with murder rising by 22.2%.
“Murder and assault GBH of children under the age of 17 also recorded sharp increases,” he said.
“However, the number of attempted murder cases of children has declined by 6.8%.
“One thousand one hundred and seven more people were killed compared to the same period in 2021.
“Of the 6 083 people killed, 898 were women while 306 were children under the age of 17.
“Alarmingly, the murder of children recorded a 37.2% increase in the period of reporting.”
In total, 10 818 people were raped.
“Sexual offences recorded a 13.7% increase but contact sexual offences decreased.
“Almost half of the cases, a staggering 4 653 rapes took place at the victim’s or rapist’s home.
Liquor was involved in 1 290 of the rapes.
Cele said assault GBH figures have shown a drastic increase with over 6 575 more cases reported.
“In total, 742 992 cases of assault GBH and 45 746 of common assault were opened with the police,” he said.
“Out of the 42 992 assault GBH cases, 1 937 were of children under 17 years.”
Cele said arguments, road rage, intervening in fights and robberies were a leading precursor to the assault GBH.
In total, 3 306 kidnap cases were opened.
“This crime trend has shown a sharp increase with over 1 700 more cases reported to the police compared to the same comparative period,” he said.
“Most of the kidnap cases were hijacking, robbery and rape-related.
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