“On average 57 people are murdered a day, which brings us closer to a war zone… yet we are not in war,” these were the words uttered by Police Minister, Bheki Cele at a media briefing following the release of the 2017/18 crime statistics last Tuesday.
This statistic, compounded by the numerous school-related crimes which made headlines last week, show a grave need to interrogate South Africa’s (SA) culture of violence.
While SA’s murder rate has gone up 6.9% according to the 2017/18 crime statistics, an even bigger concern is the increase in the number of crimes involving women and children.
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At the beginning of women’s month, thousands of women across the country took to the streets to protest against the government’s lack of intervention in the killing and sexual assault of women in SA.
These women were met by factions of our society who attempted to discredit the movement and made utterances on social media about how both men and women are killed equally.
The number of women murdered increased by 11% while the murders of boys and girls increased by 20% and 10% respectively. A little over 50 100 sexual offences were reported nationally over the last financial year compared to 49 700 in 2016/17.
WATCH:
The numbers for Protea Glen police station paint a similar picture as the number of sexual offences has increased to 94 from 90 in the previous financial year according to Crime Statistics SA.
While crime perpetrated against women and children has seen an increase in the past financial year nationally, Protea Glen police station has seen a slight decrease in the number of rape cases reported in the latest crime statistics.
A total number of 73 cases of rape were reported in 2016/17 while 69 were reported in 2017/18. Sexual assault crimes in the community have however also gone up as 21 were reported in the latest statistics while 12 were reported in 2016/17.
These statistics are, however, not fully reliable as a lot of rape and sexual assault cases go unreported, particularly in areas such as Protea South that is still dealing with issues such as spacial inequality and poverty which tend to be drivers of crime according to Wits Centre of Excellence in Human Development.
- Read full stats here Latest crime statistics for SA 2018
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