BOTH Richards Bay and Empangeni SAPS were on the top 30 list nationally for burglaries at residential properties, with Richards Bay recording the eleventh highest cases in the country with 162 cases and Empangeni ranked at 21.

Richards Bay, however, saw an increase of 61 cases while Empangeni decreased by 20 cases when compared to the same period last year.

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This according to the national crime statistics released by police minister Bheki Cele last month.

Housebreaking or residential burglary has consistently been the most common crime experienced by households in South Africa.

The crime is fast increasing both nationally and locally, and the numbers will grow as the festive season draws near.

The recent survey by Stats SA showed that households which experienced burglaries in the five years preceding the survey had increased from 2,1 million in 2015/16 to 2,3 million in 2019/20.

Definition
‘Home robbery’ is regarded as a violent crime because people are at home when it takes place as compared to ‘housebreaking’ (burglary), which occurs when the family is away from home.

With an estimated 1,2 million incidences of housebreaking in 2019/20, and affecting 891 000 households in South Africa, this represented 5,3 percent of all households in the country.

While incidents of housebreaking peaked in June and December during the 2018/19 period, housebreaking peaked in June, September, and December in 2019/20.

An estimated 169 000 incidences of home robberies occurred, affecting 139 000 households in 2019/20.

The number of affected households represents 0,8% of all households in the country.

About 55 percent of households that experienced home robbery reported
it to the police.

However, home robbery has constantly declined between 2015/16 (506 000) and 2019/20 (415 000).

Locally, police are expecting a peak in both household and business burglaries during December.

‘We are working closely with the neighbourhood watch groups and CPF as we have already started to see increases in home burglaries when we entered level one of the lockdown.

‘This sort of crime, as well as hijackings, tends to peak around this time of year,’ said King Cetshwayo SAPS spokesperson Captain Mbongeni Mdlalose.

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