There were 800 more murders in South Africa in 2013/2014 than there were in the previous 2012/2013 year.
The base figure for 2012/2013 were not given but if there were say 200 murders in South Africa that year there were 1000 murders in 2013/14.
National Police Commissioner Reya Phiyega said at the release of South Africa’s 2013/2014 crime statistics in Pretoria that the 800 increase in the number of murders actually amounted to an increase of 5 percent and attempted murders by 4.6 percent, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm increased by 1.5 percent and robbery with aggravated circumstances was up by 12.7 percent.
Bank robbery, she said, increased 200 percent, moving from seven in 2012/2013 to 21 in 2013/2014 went from seven to 21, and that most of them occurred in Gauteng, though over a five-year period bank robberies decreased by 77.4.
“Gauteng had 11 bank robberies, the Eastern Cape five, KwaZulu-Natal two and the Free State three”, she disclosed.
The robbery of cash-in-transit vehicles stabilized at 145 incidents, this year compared to last year while Common robbery went up by 0.6 percent.
Trio crimes – crimes relating to personal safety and business such as house robbery, business robbery and car-jacking – which the Commissioner described as “remaining stubborn”, increased by 10.8 percent.
“They remain stubborn… overall they continue to increase,” she said, adding that “they are packaged differently because Cabinet is keen to know how these are doing”.
“In the past year, carjacking saw a 12.3 percent increase, truck hijacking a 12.1 percent increase, robbery a 13.7 percent increase, and robbery in residential areas a 7.4 percent increase”, said Phiyega who pointed out that over the past 10 years, trio crimes group increased by 95.3 percent and by four percent over the past five years.
Drug-related crimes on the other hand increased by 26.1 percent in the 2013/14 financial year, Ms Phiyega said, adding: “The concerning issue is that it appears that when this is on the increase, we need to deal with the consumers”, because consumers encouraged supply.
“The detected increase showed better policing”, she said and that drugs clocked a 210.4 increase over the past 10 years.
Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs decreased by 1.8 percent in the past year; and by 133.1 percent over the past 10 years
“We are not going to rest. We will continue putting effort into these areas,” she assured.