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The national lockdown, and the resultant enforced restrictions, changed South Africa significantly.

While crime, by no stretch of the imagination, ceased, it altered to reflect the times.

Following the hard lockdown, police minister Bheki Cele was pleased to announce in April that crime had decreased significantly compared to the same time the previous year.

His tone suggested that this had something to do with competent police work, while the average South African did the maths and came to the conclusion that it probably had something to do with the fact that nobody was allowed to leave their homes.

That’s why experts predicted that once the curfews and restrictions on movement were eased, we could expect an “avalanche of crime”, especially in light of increased economic hardship brought on by the pandemic.

Fast forward to the present, and Cele has once again announced crime stats, this time for 2019/20, showing increases and decreases in different types of criminal activity over the past year. The stats cover 21 crime categories.

17 of these are reported by the public, while the remaining four are as a result of police activity.

Notably, the year recorded is between April 1, 2019, and March 1, 2020, which means that the lockdown stats were not included in the report.

Per The Citizen:

According to Cele, the crime statistics for 2019/2020 reflect the slowing down of the increase in violent crimes, despite the murder rate increasing by 1,4% and contact crimes overall increasing by 0,7%.

On the upside, there were no bank robberies this year.

“The significant reduction in the crimes of fear contributes positively towards police and community relations. When families feel safe in their homes, it builds and enhances confidence in the police and the justice system,” said Police Minister Bheki Cele during Friday’s briefing on the annual crime statistics for the 2019/2020 period.

I think declaring trust between the community and the police is a bit of a stretch, especially when you consider how law enforcement comported themselves during the hard lockdown.

“Meanwhile, under the subcategories of aggravated robbery, robbery of Cash in Transit recorded a decrease of 10,4%. However, in the same category, carjacking and truck hijacking have recorded an increase of 13, 3% and 1, 7% respectively.

Operational interventions have been deployed accordingly to address the growing increase.”

The main categories at a glance show that overall, crime rates are down, although, as BusinessTech points out, this could be as a result of both fewer crimes reported in communities, as well as fewer crimes detected through police action.

Murders remain high, with an average of 58 people murdered in South Africa every day.

Some context is needed there, so how about this? There were 21 325 murders in South Africa during the 12 months in question, in a country with a population of around 58 million.

During the same time period, the UK had 650 murders, with a population of around 67 million.

That tells you quite a bit.

As of the start of the national lockdown, new laws were introduced by the NCCC that included a ban on the sale of tobacco and alcohol, breaking curfew, and other violations of lockdown restrictions.

This has fundamentally changed the way that the system works, as people are arrested and face charges for things that were not illegal before the pandemic took hold.

Many South Africans, who would have never committed a crime in their lives, paid admission of guilt fines without realising that they had just landed themselves a criminal record.

The illicit cigarette trade is also flourishing, as tobacco companies battle to get government to lift the tobacco ban, thereby allowing them to regain their foothold in the market.

In short, calculating next year’s stats is going to be tricky.

[source:citizen&bussinesstech]