Gauteng crime stats sees spike in murder, e-commerce robberies

Mawela presented the latest provincial crimes statistics to the portfolio committee on safety at the Gauteng provincial legislature on Wednesday.

According to Mawela, while the province registered a decrease in some categories of contact crimes such as sexual offences, assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm as well as robbery with aggravating circumstances, the police were concerned that more people were targeted through online scams.

“The unsuspecting buyers or sellers are lured to a location where after they are hijacked/robbed by a group of suspects or in some incidents the victim will make use of the e-hailing transport whereby they will be robbed,” Mawela said.

“In this instance both the e-hailing drivers and commuters are targets. Most of these incidents are reported in the Eldorado Park, Rietgat, Loate, Winterveldt, and Hammanskraal areas, but are not only limited to those areas.”

Under the category of contact crimes robbery with aggravating circumstances dropped by 0.1%, which translates to 10 counts year-on-year.

Common robbery went up by 2.7% between January and March this year.

VIGILANTISM, ARGUMENTS, AND ROBBERY LEADING CAUSES OF MURDERS

Gauteng murders have gone up by 10.9% in the fourth quarter of the 2022/23 financial year, and vigilantism, arguments, and robbery are the top three leading causes.

Mawela said it was worrying that members of the public resort to vigilantism but later said he believes that South Africans still trust in the police’s ability to do their work.

“We have worked tirelessly, these imbizos that I’ve talked about is to try to bring the community closer to us and to continuously account to communities.

I won’t say the community has lost complete confidence in us, when we operate everywhere we go law-abiding citizens of this country keep on encouraging us.”

Among the murders recorded in this period were those of six police officers.

The police commissioner also said the growing trend of mass shootings in the province was also contributing negatively to the murder statistics, referencing the drive-by shooting of 11 people at a dumping site in Diepkloof in January where six people died.

“There was another incident in Alberton where five victims were killed due to vigilantism. The community accused the victims of reigning a terror of crime against the residents in the area,” he said.

Guns remain the weapon commonly used in the commission of murders, followed by knives and other sharp objects.  

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