Cape Town - The quarterly crime statistics for October to December 2020 has shown that there has been an increase in murders, carjacking and home robberies in the Western Cape.
Police Minister, Bheki Cele, presented the quarterly crime statistics today reflecting crimes that occurred from October 1 to December 31, 2020.
When the minister presented the statistics, he acknowledged that police was also impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the moves from Lockdown Level 1 to Adjusted Level 3 during the three months.
“Covid-19 is also impacting on policing, infecting over 27 000 members and claiming the lives of 570 of them. It is indeed painful to see our members succumb to this unforgiving virus.
“At the same, time we remain encouraged that over 25 000 of our members have recovered and are back at work, serving their communities,” Cele said.
“While some of our members fight for their lives, others continue their fight against ruthless criminals, each day. We have had to dig deep, as the SAPS, to make sure that we deliver on our constitutional mandate at all cost.”
He said that the statistics exposed some of the gaps and policing shortcomings that exist in certain crime categories.
“The National Crime Statistics from October to December 2020 do not paint a good picture, and hence, force us as the SAPS to dig deep and put the shoulder to the wheel.
“I remain concerned about the Mpumalanga, Kwa Zulu-Natal, Free State and the Western Cape provinces, which these stats show, are regressing in their fight against crime.”
The stats for the Western Cape showed an 11.2% increase in murder cases, 22.5% increase in attempted murder cases.
There were 114 more murder cases when compared to the previous period for 2019/2020, while there was a 201 case difference in attempted murder cases.
There has also been a 30.5% increase – a 171 case increase – in robberies at residential properties, while robberies at non-residential premises decreased by 7%.
The province has seen a sharp increase in hijackings with carjacking, truck hijacking and cash-in-transit robberies. Carjacking has increased 14.9%, truck hijacking has risen 103% and cash-in-transit robberies has risen 166.7%.
There was 34 more cases of truck hijacking when compared to the previous period.
For drug-related crimes in the province, 8 out of the top 10 police stations come from the Western Cape, with Mitchells Plain having the most drug-related cases.
This followed by Bishop Lavis, Atlantis, Steenberg, Kleinvlei, Cape Town Central, Lentegeur and then Delft.
Kraaifontein police station is just outside of the top 10 in the country, in the 11th position.
Police stations within the top 10 ranking the highest number of attempted murder cases in the province are: Elsies River, Kraaifontein, Delft, Manenberg and Mitchells Plain.
The highest number of murder cases were registered at Kraaifontein police station between October and December, and then followed by Delft, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Harare, Philippi East and Mfuleni.
The police minister said that the crime statistics should be causing officials “sleepless nights”.
“We must exert ourselves in the quest to deliver our mandate as the SAPS, which is to protect and serve the people of this country.
“This is a matter of life and death and complacency won’t be tolerated,” Cele said.
The full presentation can be accessed here: https://www.saps.gov.za/services/october_to_december_2020_21_crimestats.pdf
Cape Argus