Crime Wave: South Africa Has 49 Murders A Day

Both experts agree that during this democratic era, the murder rate has fallen by more than 50% – although it is showing a slight increase in recent years.

“The trends for the past 10 and five years have shown a decrease whilst in the year under review there has been an increase in certain categories of crime… in essence, the issue of contact crimes is a social phenomenon and is a matter that needs to be dealt with at a multi-disciplinary level across society”.

The belief that police could single-handedly solve the murder rate in the country was “essentially a hallucination”‚ Police Minister Nathi Nhleko told Parliament while releasing the crime statistics this morning.

Mr Nhleko, briefing Parliament’s police committee, said that contact crimes had increased by 0.9% across all the categories meaning that increases in a few would be larger than in others.

That’s almost 782 more deaths when compared to the previous period.

But he said crime‚ and particularly violent crime‚ was a social ill that would take more than the police alone to solve.

House robberies are up by just over 5.2 percent.

A total of 86 police officers were killed in 1 537 attacks in the 2014/2015 financial year.

However, rights groups would argue that incidents of rape and sexual assault are under reported.

He said 1,043 life sentences were imposed on 739 suspects, while 686 police were arrested for various types of crimes in 2014/15.

The institute’s Gareth Newham says the police are losing gains seen in the last decade.

“It can contribute to more anti foreign sentiments in the country, of fear that foreigners are contributing to crime”.

Meanwhile, President Jacob Zuma is considering National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega’s response on why she shouldn’t be suspended, pending an investigation into her fitness to hold office. “Without the figures to back that up it can be risky”.

“They could do much better in terms of neutralising and identifying crime syndicates that are behind most of these crimes”, says Burger.