THE Provincial Executive Council of KZN has vowed to take action against criminals in a desperate bid to bring down the crime rate in the province.

The resolution comes as a response to a report on the fourth quarter crime statistics from the Justice and Crime Prevention Cluster covering the period between January and March.

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The crime figures showed a shocking increase in contact crime which includes murder, attempted murder and robbery aggravated as well as sexual offences.

Empangeni and eSikhaleni (which fall under the Empangeni cluster) featured in the top 30 stations in SA for crimes such as murder, attempted murder, burglaries, and kidnapping.

Empangeni ranked 20 for contact crimes, including murder, sexual offences, assault, assault GBH, common assault and robbery, with 597 cases recorded in three months.

eSikhaleni ranked twentieth for murder with 29 cases – an increase of nine from the previous quarter.

Both eSikhaleni and Empangeni made it to the top 30 list for attempted murder.

Statistics also revealed that assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm was at a high of 164 cases in Empangeni, whith 192 common assault cases.

Residential robbery saw 160 cases, while Empangeni also ranked number one in the country for cash in transit crimes.

Empangeni SAPS also featured in the top 30 list for kidnapping and arson.

The Provincial Executive Council noted the disappointing spike in murder, with the areas of the top murders in the country being in the province of KZN, especially in sSikhaleni.

While admitting that crime is fast evolving and is a severe threat to the social and economic prospects of the province, the PEC believes that this trend can be interrupted through aggressive operations that instil fear among criminals before it spirals out of control.

The Council has committed not to allow violence and mayhem to continue. In the face of these disappointing statistics, the Council said it would soon be introducing a comprehensive intervention plan which will see law enforcement agencies combine in disrupting gangs and criminal networks, intercept drugs, seize illegal guns, apprehend criminals and bring them to justice.

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