Ramaphosa tells ANC supporters SA will 'soon' see results of anti-crime campaigns

Ramaphosa delivered the ANC's 2019 election manifesto review at an event at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto on Sunday.

"We have employed 20,000 police, with more to come. I had a chance to talk to those who are currently in training. I insisted that when they finish their training in a few months, we want them to join the ranks of those who are going to be fighting crime.”

The police's latest crime statistics revealed that some 6,200 people were killed between January and March this year.

This translates to almost 70 murders a day in South Africa.

Ramaphosa said the country’s various law enforcement agencies will continue to fight corruption at a provincial and national level.

"We have been arresting thousands of people. Gauteng is going through a very difficult period of illegal mining. We are going to tackle that problem. We will make sure that they rid this province of the zama zamas. We are going to work together with our security forces to ensure that we address this problem," said Ramaphosa. 

The president also touched on the issue of gender-based violence.

"We are committed, as we did commit in our 2019 manifesto, that there are quite a number of interventions which we are going to embark upon to address the issue of gender-based violence,” Ramaphosa said.

“We have implemented quite a number of the things we committed to. For instance, we said we must pass laws that are going to make it difficult for those who rape and kill women not to get bail. In fact, we are saying, once you touch, rape or kill a woman, you should not get bail.” 

More than 10 500 rape cases were opened between January and March this year, which translates to around 116 cases of rape a day.

The number of rape cases reported showed a 2.8% decrease compared to the same period in 2022.

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