Cele under fire for latest crime stats

Police officers were, however, in the firing line with 31 officers during the three-month period, almost double the number of cops killed by criminals during the same period in 2022.

Forty more women and 50 children were also killed between April and June than in the corresponding period the previous year.

Anti-crime organisation Action Society’s Ian Cameron believes these stats leave Police Minister Bheki Cele with blood on his hands.

"You need to step down and if not, you should be sacked,” said Cameron on Friday.

“I reiterate that you have blood on your hands. While you joke around with your computer, more women are being raped. At least 120 rapes per day are reported and those are just the ones that we know of. You have time to make jokes, while ordinary people on the ground have to bear the brunt of your useless team and your own incompetence.”

Meanwhile, Luke Lamprecht from Women & Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) said the decrease in reported sexual offences does not necessarily translate into a decline in the number of crimes committed.

"The increase in sexual assault cases is deeply concerning as it means there is an increase in levels of violence. While a decrease in reported sexual offences does not indicate that there was a decrease in the number of sexual offences. It just simply means that less people reported. Sexual offences have always been a heavily under-reported crime.”

At the same time, the Congress of the People said South Africans continue to feel unsafe..

The party's spokesperson Dennis Bloem said the statistics on crime against women and children are particularly disturbing. 

"President Cyril Ramaphosa is stubborn and doesn't want to listen to calls to remove the Minister of Police Bheki Cele and replace him with a more competent minister who will not interfere in the duties of the national commissioner of police.

“People are being killed in this country as if we are in a war zone. The crime on women and children must get special attention. The recruitment of more police officers will not assist in bringing down the crime levels because Bheki Cele is interfering in the duties of the police.”

This was echoed by the DA’s Andrew Whitfield.

"The violent war against women and children continues unabated. Women and children continue to bear the brunt of violence and are highlighted by the following shocking increases in murder, attempted murder and assault GBH from the previous year.”

Richard Mamabolo, who speaks for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, said the police cannot always be expected to carry the can for a rise in crime.

"It is always vital that when reflecting on the rising crime statistics, we not only blame it on police but take a broad approach that considers the broader socio-economic conditions faced by the populace, including the implications thereof which led to the conditions our law enforcement officers have to contend with.”

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