Johannesburg - South Africa is a veritable crime haven and the nation has every right to be afraid following the release of the Crime Stats for the first quarter of 2022.
Experts sounded the warning saying something has to give and that the country cannot go on in this way.
Ironically, the crime stats show that child murders are up by 37% in the week the country is commemorating Child Protection Week. The number of sexual offences reported to the police increased by 13.7% to 10 818 during the first three months of this year.
Presented by the Police Minister Bheki Cele on Friday, the latest statistics show that murder increased by 22.2% from 4 976 in the same period last year to 6 083 in 2022.
A criminologist at Stellenbosch University's Political Science Department, Dr Guy Lamb, said the drastic rise in crime figures was an indication of the heightened stress levels in the country.
“There are no studies at the moment but if you look at what’s going on it’s not surprising that we are seeing these high levels of crime. There’s Covid-19 , unemployment, fuel hikes, power outages, concerns around food prices and of course there’s alcohol abuse. Arguments tend to escalate quickly when alcohol is involved. We have seen a rise in crime stats over the last 10 years but in the last three months we have seen double-digit increases in most categories,” he said.
While Lamb believes SAPS is trying, he added that prosecutions are just not happening as regularly as they should.
“Most murder victims are men and most perpetrators are younger men. We’ve seen a 17.5% increase in the murder of women, which is huge. There’s a 37.2% increase in the murder of children. It would appear that South Africans are settling disputes with violence,” he concluded.
The Institute for Security Studies’ (ISS) crime and justice information hub manager, Lizette Lancaster, shares Lamb’s concerns about the increased crime stats.
“Murder is the most accurate crime statistic because it has high reporting and recording rates. This makes murder the best indicator to measure our violence levels over time,” said Lancaster.
“Many other crime categories have relatively low reporting rates and are less indicative of actual levels of crime and violence.”
“These reporting rates are influenced by trust in the police and whether survivors believe the police can or will do something to assist them, arrest perpetrators or get property back.
“We are now back to murder rate levels we saw last in 2004/2005. This level represents a rate seven times higher than the international average. This is unacceptable for a democracy.
“Between 1994 and 2010/2011 we managed to half our murder rate but it has been increasing since then. Now, the number of murders represent an average of 66 murders per day in these three months.
“The increases in other violent crime such as rape is an indicator that our society are facing increasingly serious challenges and that perpetrators are continuing with impunity.”
She added that the increase in carjackings and kidnappings was also of huge concern as it has been a constant challenge for police for several years now.
“Armed robberies such as carjackings as well as kidnappings have been a consistent policing challenge in recent years. These types of crimes are very responsive to intelligence driven policing as they are driven by syndicates.
“The investigation, arrest and interruption of these crime syndicates will make a substantial difference in the number of crimes recorded. In turn, this will positively impact confidence in the police and reduce levels of fear in communities.”
Lancaster said police and all other law enforcement agencies need to work together to curb the violence in the country.
“The first step is to analyse where, when and why murder and other violent crime take place. We know from past analysis that 50% of murders take place in only 12% of police station areas. These hotspots need to be analysed to understand what drives these murders, why they occur, where they occur and when they occur.
“Strategies need to be developed in each area with the help of the community and other government departments as well as research and grassroots organisations. Murders linked to gender-based violence require different interventions to murders driven by armed robberies such as carjackings or street robberies.”
Every single South African should be concerned, warned anti-crime activist Yusuf Ambramjee.
“Life has become cheap in this country and bodies and bullets have sadly become a way of life,” he told The Saturday Star.
He called for serious interventions saying lives and livelihoods are at stake.
“We are in serious trouble because there seems to be no respect for life or property. These criminals are running a mock, and it seems to be a free for all.
“While some inroads have been made, the majority of syndicates appear to still be at large and we are seeing an increase in kidnappings for ransom, especially in regards to wealthy business people.”
Abramjee also believes that sexual offences might be even higher than what is being reflected saying many survivors of crime do not report cases to the police as many have lost confidence in them. He conceded police are under-staffed and face many other issues, which has led to a decline in the overall system.
“The minister acknowledging that there is a problem is a good sign but it shouldn t only be talk, they need to put things into practice.”