LISTEN: 57 South Africans murdered per day
The South African Police Services (SAPS) says the murder
rate in South Africa has increased with 57 people murdered on average per day.
SAPS appeared before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police on Tuesday, to release the 2017/18 crime statistics.
“It looks like the figure this time, they are dying 57 a day, that’s how South Africans are murdered and it borders close to a war-zone while there is peace and no war in South Africa. The figures that always scare me are murder figures,” Police Minister Bheki Cele told MPs.
The murders increased from 19016 in 2016/17 to 20336 in 2017/18.
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Several factors contributed to the increase, these include mob justice, revenge attacks, taxi violence, illegal mining, hostel killings, and gang violence.
“The top 30 stations in terms of murder include the Western Cape with 10 stations followed by Gauteng with 9, then KwaZulu-Natal with 6 and the Eastern Cape with 5. These 30 stations contributed 40124 murders to the national total we have observed which is 20% of the murders,” said Major General Norman Sekhukhune.
He said murders of girls, boys, and women have increased contributing 19.3% to the overall murder rate.
“Sixty-two individuals were murdered during 58 attacks on farms and small holdings. Forty-two of the murders occurred on farms, 15 on small holdings and one at a cattle post. It was found that firearms and vehicles were robbed in 14 cases. Forty-six of the 62 victims were white and 16 were African,” added Sekhukhune.
He said three out of the seven crime categories decreased.
“We have increased in terms of three crimes, murder, sexual, and attempted murder. The other four have gone down that is assault GBH, assault common robbery, and robbery with aggravating circumstances and the overall broad category of contact crimes have decreased by 1.1%,” said Sekhukhune.