By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Police Minister Bheki Cele has once again raised concern at the country’s alarming rate of crimes against women and children.
This after Quarter 2 of 2022 crime statistics saw a double-digit percentage increase for murder, attempted murder and assault GBH [grievous bodily harm] against women. The Minister on Wednesday released the statistics, which reflected the country’s crime trends between July and September 2022.
He noted that over the comparable period, South Africa was under lockdown stages 4, 3 and 2 – explaining why the latest figures show such high rates of escalation.
However, the minister admitted that the crime figures show that aggression and violence are at worrying levels in South Africa.
Addressing media, Cele said the rate at which women are abused, violated and killed in South Africa remains worrying and unacceptable.
Cele revealed that over 13 000 women were victims of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
While 1 277 women were victims of attempted murder, 989 women were murdered during this reporting period.
Rape
Over the three months, the Minister said over 10 000 rape cases were opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS).
“From a sample of 8 227 rape incidents that were perused, it was determined that 5 083, which is 62%, of these incidents occurred at the residence of the victims or perpetrators. [A total of] 1 651 of the rape incidents occurred at public places such as streets, parks and beaches,” the Minister said.
Women and children
The Minister said the statistics were indicative of communities that continue to fail to protect children.
Shockingly, in just six months, 558 children were killed in South Africa between April to September 2022.
In this regard, Cele said police were investigating 294 attempted murder dockets opened between July and September 2022.
A total of 1 895 assault GBH cases, with children as victims, were opened with the police during this reporting period.
FCS cases
Between July and September this year, the FCS [Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences] unit arrested 4 375 perpetrators of crimes committed against women and children.
“Police traced and arrested 410 rapists during this reporting period. Sixty-eight of them have been sentenced to life behind bars,” Cele said.
The Minister said it was very encouraging that the Criminal Justice System continues to send a strong message of zero tolerance to rape through the stiff sentences handed out to rapists.
“It is clear that the broader civil society, religious organisations and various community structures must sharply address the causes and preventative measures of crimes against women and children.”
Cele said that it is clear that the SAPS must continue to sharpen its responses to crime, including arresting some members of the SAPS who choose to work against the law.
He said that as the country heads towards the festive season, criminals tend to be brazen as they try to undermine the rule of law – but SAPS is moving to combat this by putting 10,000 more boots on the ground in December to intensify police visibility during the festive season and beyond.
“More boots will be on the ground, and escalated crime prevention and crime-combating operations will be a daily occurrence until the end of January 2023.”
The only two crime categories that saw a reduction in reported crimes over the period were burglary at non-residential premises and arson.
Cele also said while new DNA specimens were coming in for analysis, the assurance has been made to the Police Ministry that the SAPS would meet its deadline of clearing the DNA backlog.
“We have truly come a long way since the DNA backlog was first discovered at our forensic service laboratories in May 2021.
“Daily work and interventions continue, to ensure the SAPS never goes back to the dark days, where the DNA backlog reached levels of over 200 thousand cases,” said the Minister.
He said all hands were on deck to capacitate and empower the forensic service laboratories to deliver a quality service for all South Africans.
Meanwhile opposition MPs doubt the veracity of the “depressing and worrying” crime statistics the police presented to the Portfolio Committee on Police.
The chairperson of the committee, ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson, said sexual offences were increasing, with close to 10 000 rapes within 90 days, meaning there were about 120 rapes reported daily.
Of the children murdered, she said: “This is very concerning.”
She also remarked that there were 83 rapes at educational facilities. “It is very clear that our society must change,” Joemat-Pettersson said.
ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe described the statistics as “depressing and worrying” and the murders of children as “heartbreaking”.
“One asks the question of whether we will ever live in a society where criminals are not in control in some streets. Because everything is increasing, serious crimes is increasing. Should we conclude that the police are failing? Should we conclude that we’ll forever live with these criminals causing havoc in our communities?” he said.
NFP MP Munzoor Shaik-Emam said: “Let us for once at least admit that we have lost the war on crime.”
He said crime was “psychologically draining” on South Africans.
Several opposition MPs questioned the validity of the statistics presented, mentioning that the Auditor-General recently raised discrepancies between what the police publicised and what was reported by police stations.
“I question the correctness of the crime statistics,” said FF-Plus leader Pieter Groenewald. “I don’t see this as a true reflection of the crime situation in South Africa.”
DA MP Andrew Whitfield agreed that most South Africans would say the statics presented wasn’t an accurate representation of the situation.
“It is very clear the South African government and all its relevant departments – not just the police – but all of its relevant departments, is failing to contain the social dysfunctionality, which is one of the root causes of crime and the police themselves are becoming overwhelmed by criminals who are brazenly attacking police stations, killing police officers and operating with impunity,” said Whitfield.
“This environment occurs, chairperson, because we don’t get accurate figures, we don’t have a trust relationship where we trust the information provided to us by the minister.