2009-09-22

Cape Town - South Africa's murder rate declined again last year but remains around 50 a day while house robberies increased by nearly a
quarter, according to the annual crime figures released on Tuesday.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said police were perturbed by a 41.5% hike in the number of business robberies in the 2008/09 financial year, mostly targeting small businesses, and an increase of 27.3% in residential robberies.

"We are deeply concerned about the increase in house robberies ... it is one of the crimes that are the most intrusive and personalise the crime experience," he told a media briefing in Cape Town.

"We simply cannot tolerate a situation where people do not feel safe in their homes."

Cash-in-transit robberies declined by 2.3% during the period, which ended on March 31 this year.

"This, we agree, is not much decrease compared to the same period last year. It is a decrease nevertheless," the minister said.

Bank robberies dropped by 29.2% and ATM attacks by 10%.

Uniquely random, violent

Mthethwa bemoaned the "uniquely random and violent character" of the 2.1 million serious crimes reported in South Africa last year, of which 32.7% were "contact" crimes associated with violence.

He said rampant crime was in part to blame on "the high number of firearms among civilians, greed and conspicuous consumption, the psychology of patriarchal power relations and inconsiderate attitudes towards vulnerable members of society, especially children".

Mthethwa said those vulnerable to crime remained the poor, as evidenced by the nature of most of the 18 148 murders reported last year.

Half of the victims died of stab wounds and about 70% of murders were the results of arguments turned violent, which suggested they happened in poor socio-economic settings, assistant commissioner Chris de Kock said.

Mthethwa and national police commissioner Bheki Cele said the police needed to do more, and had begun an audit of how they deployed their human and material resources, and the timing of that deployment.

"Am I happy? No, I'm not happy," Cele told reporters.

"You cannot be happy when 10 people are killed let alone 18 000."

Wider powers

He said the measures police would take included pushing ahead with the controversial change to section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act to give police wider powers to shoot at criminals, strengthening special units, and improving the way police stations respond to distress calls.

Mthethwa said it was vital to have "greater engagement" with community policing forums to help police "refine" their efforts to curb household robberies.

He stressed that murder and attempted murder had been steadily declining over the past couple of years, and the police were pleased that they continued to do so.

During the year under review murder dropped by 3.4% and attempted murder by 4.3%. Compared to 1994/95, the murder rate was down 44%.

Common assault was 4.3% down, and assault with intention to commit grievous bodily harm down by 4.7%.

Sexual offences increased by 10.1%. Part of this could be accounted for by changes in legislation, which had introduced new categories of crime. But it was still "not good".

Mthethwa said the release of the statistics was not merely to quantify crime or create a debate in society.

Call to action

"We believe that this is a call to action for government, business, NGOs and communities," he said.

"As you will observe ...there are areas where we are making progress. At the same time there are those where we are still lagging behind.

"Nevertheless, the ANC government remains unmoved in its commitment to securing a better life for all, and the fight against crime is an integral part of ensuring this better life."

The police were therefore encouraged by the decrease in five of the seven contact crime categories.

The police's annual report painted a bleak picture of conviction rates, with that for murder rising only 0.15% to 12.8% last year.

The ANC said it was concerned about the crime figures while opposition parties were scathing in their criticism of Mthethwa's report.

The Democratic Alliance said it is clear why the ruling party did not risk releasing the statistics earlier in an election year.

United Democratic Movement chief whip Stanley Ntapane said the crime statistics were schocking, adding: "There are war zones with lower rates of killing."

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