Crime stats: Gauteng records increase in murder
More than 1 700 people were murdered in Gauteng between October and December 2023.
This was confirmed by the newly appointed Gauteng Police Commissioner Tommy Mthombeni during the release of crime statistics for the third quarter of 2023/24.
Mthombeni presented the latest provincial crime statistics during a media briefing in Kempton Park on Tuesday.
He said the province had seen an overall increase in contact crimes, including murder, attempted murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Mthombeni said there was a 3.8% increase in murder cases.
"During the period under review, 1 787 people were killed in Gauteng, which reflects an increase of 3.8% (66 counts).
“Two hundred and fourteen were women while fifty-five were children.
“The analysis of a sample of 1,691 cases revealed that the top three contributors to the general increase of murder were arguments, misunderstandings, provocation and road rage by 185 cases, followed by robberies (house, business and street) by 154 cases and vigilantism by 84 cases.
“Among many other factors that contributed to murder increases in Gauteng is the persistent phenomenon of multiple murders. This is where there is more than one victim murdered in one incident.
“Gauteng had 65 dockets of murder registered with 156 victims, and that has contributed to more accumulated counts of murder during this quarter. Examples of the incidents of multiple murders that occurred during the quarter under review happened in De Deur and Diepsloot," said Mthombeni.
At the same time, Gauteng's quarterly contribution towards the national figure has been showing a consistent decrease over the past five years.
"When comparing the same quarter of 2023/2024 with 2019/2020, the quarterly contribution decreased by 1.7 percentage points, which is equivalent to 6,472 counts less,” Mthombeni said.
Although the overall crime, as reflected by the broad category of the 17 community reported crimes, increased by 1% or 1,139 counts in comparison with the same period in 2022/2023, we have, however, managed to reduce eight offences out of the 17 community reported crime categories.
“This then puts Gauteng province amongst the top four provinces which were able to reduce eight or more offences," said Mthombeni.
On assault, Mthombeni said assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and common assaults are the two main contributors to the province's overall figure of contact crimes category.
The two crime categories contributed 50,8% towards the contact crime figure in the period under review.
"They have recorded 26,066 counts out of 51,327 total counts in the contact crime category," he added.
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GAUTENG THIRD QUARTER CRIME STATS OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 2023 by anastasi mankese mokgobu on Scribd
