Alcohol-related crimes drop in first week of lockdown – Cele
Police Minister Bheki Cele has attributed the decrease in crime to the ban of sale of alcohol during the national lockdown.
In a statement, the police says the latest crime statistic has not been released and Cele's analysis is yet to undergo verification.
"The 2019-2020 national crime statistics are yet to be officially released by the Minister of Police to Parliament at a later stage this year.
"Therefore, the analysis done currently is a preliminary report that is yet to undergo the necessary verification and endorsements," said departmental spokesperson Mataphelo Peters.
Peters says the first week of lockdown compared to the same time in 2019 shows that murder, rape and assault cases have all dropped by a large number.
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"Cele confirmed that murder cases had dropped from 326 to 94, rape cases dropped from 699 to 101, cases of assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm dropped from 2 673 to 456 and trio crimes dropped from 8 853 to 2 098," she said.
"Car and truck hijacking, business robberies, and house robberies which are collectively grouped as trio crimes are arguably the most violent crimes where the perpetrators are commonly armed with illegal firearms."
However, gender-based violence cases remain high.
"Over 2 300 calls and complaints have been registered since the beginning of the lockdown on 27 March until 31 March and from these, 148 suspects were charged.
"The figure in relation to calls or complaints between January and 31 March stands at 15 924.
"Once all reports have been consolidated, the figures will be measured against the number of calls and complaints received through the GBV command centre in 2019, where the figure stands at 87 920," Peters noted.