Today saw crime research and statistics head Major General Norman Sekhukhune present the latest stats to Parliament’s police portfolio committee, and there were some nasty surprises.

Covering the period between April 2015 to March 2016, perhaps most alarming was the increase in the national murder rate.

IOL have a number of infographics to illustrate the findings so let’s take a look at those:

That murder rate is per 100 000 people, in case you’re a little lost.

[Gareth Newham, head of governance, crime and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies] said “With murder going up, it shows that there is more violence in our society. What we have seen is in the last 20 years, is that murder has decreased by 50 percent since apartheid ended. But, in the last three years, since 2012, murder started to rise again (and again this year).

Police are unable to keep up with the high murder rate because most violent crime happens on private property. The public needs to think more proactively in combating crime,”

The so-called trio crimes (house robberies, business robberies and carjackings) increased by 0.2 percent. House robberies increased by 2.7 percent, with the Western Cape contributing significantly to this figure with a 19.3 percent rise in this crime in the province. Business robberies rose by 2.8 percent compared to the 2014/15 stats, while car hijackings increased by 14.3 percent.

It’s all a pretty sobering reminder of how the SAPS have their work cut out for them, and it seems like at present they’re losing the battle.

[source:iol]