[imagesource: Rawpixel]

There’s a new kidnapping capital in the country, and it appears as though Cape Town is no longer at the centre of SA’s murders either.

This is based on South Africa’s latest crime stats for the second quarter of the year, released by Police Minister Bheki Cele in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Unrest and brutality have soared in the last couple of months, with Shadow Minister of Police, Andrew Whitfield, slamming Cele for “the bloodbath of violent crime [that] remains out of control … with millions of people living in fear”.

“Under Cele’s leadership of SAPS, more people are being murdered, raped and assaulted than ever before,” Whitfield said per The Daily Maverick, “while President Ramaphosa … continues giving Minister Cele his full support”.

The statistics cover the second quarter of 2022/23, compared with the same period in 2021 when South Africa was still in the various stages of COVID-19 lockdown:

The Police Recorded Crime Statistics report for the second quarter of 2022/23, showed that between July and the end of September 2022, 7,004 murders were committed. This is, on average, 76 murders every day.

The statistics also show that every day between July and the end of September 2022, on average:

• 115 people were raped;
• 448 people were victims of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm; and
• 383 serious robberies occurred.

TimesLIVE reported that Johannesburg Central has taken over as the kidnapping and robbery capital.

The Daily Maverick elaborates:

Kidnappings doubled nationally, with 4,028 recorded between July and end-September 2022, compared with 2,000 in the same period last year — an increase of 2,028 cases or 101.4%.

Gauteng recorded the most kidnappings (2,104), followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 785 and the Western Cape with 248.

Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, is now the country’s rape and murder capital.

Meanwhile, one is most likely to be hijacked in Nyanga, Cape Town, and robbed at a residential property in Plessislaer in Pietermaritzburg.

Looking at the overall provincial murder rates via BusinessTech, the top stations for reported murders are dominated by KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape:

Image: BusinessTech

The crime stats generally reveal that South Africans have serious anger issues:

“The July to September months saw a record number of assault cases reported to the police in five years. The SAPS across the country investigated a total of 85,640 cases of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) and common assault cases in the three months of reporting,” he said.

The top motives for assaults GBH include arguments, road rage, provocation and misunderstandings, as well as retaliation, revenge, and punishment. Murders usually follow the same general patterns.

Interestingly, there has also been an increase in cases of vigilantism, Cele noted, with 528 lives claimed through so-called ‘community justice’.

SAPS’ dismal performance may be playing a role in all this.

[sources:timeslive&dailymaverick&bustech]