[imagesource: Getty]

Following the hard lockdown last year, 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 was due to the fact that almost 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.

It’s been a year since the world was informed that we were in the midst of a pandemic, lockdowns have been eased in varying degrees over the course of that time, and last week the South African Police Service (SAPS) presented its Q3 crime stats to Parliament, covering the three-month period between October and December 2020.

Crime increased across a number of categories, but perhaps most concerning is the rise in violent crime. MyCityByNight reports that murder and attempted murder increasing by 6,6% and 8,7% respectively, compared to the same period the year before.

When asked why the murder rate is so high, Cele said that at the core of the country’s violent crime stats is a “major societal problem”.

SAPS national commissioner Khehla Sitole agreed.

“As explained by the minister in terms of the increase of murders in residences – it spoke directly to collapsed family structures,” Sitole said. “These family structures are defined by a lack of proper development and moral fibre. These are not areas for SAPS to directly deal with but these are often the root causes of many crimes.”

This brings us to where these crimes were happening and to what degree.

Mpumalanga recorded a 13,7% increase in murder cases (the highest in the country) compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, while Limpopo, North West, and the Northern Cape recorded a decline in cases.

The top 30 areas, by police station, where the most murder cases were recorded in the country, are:

Image: SAPS

You’ll find a larger version of the above here.

If you scroll through the top 10, the Western Cape doesn’t look too good.

Kraaifontein, Delft, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Harare, Phillipi East, and Mfuleni all showed high rates of murder in Q3 of 2020/21, with Kraaifontein in the top spot nationwide.

In total, the Western Cape accounts for seven of the top 10 murder hotspots.

More on the motives from BusinessTech:

According to the SAPS, arguments and misunderstandings were the leading motives for murder, accounting for 991 out of the total of 6,297 murders (15.7%) recorded over the three month period between October and December 2020.

Overall, South Africa recorded the highest number of murders in the third quarter of 2020/21 compared to any other point in the five-year period from 2016/17 to 2020/21.

Unsettling to say the least.

[source:mycitybynight&bussinesstech]