Cape Town - POLICE Minister Bheki Cele will release quarterly crime statistics on Friday morning with the last figures showing a spike in crime in the country with lockdown measures being lifted.
Cele will first appear before Parliament’s portfolio committee on police to release crime statistics from July to the end of September.
Political parties have called for tight measures by the police to clamp down on crime.
The criminals have been involved in a spate of robberies, murder and rapes in the last few months.
When Cele released crime statistics in August they showed an increase in the previous quarter.
In the first quarter murder cases increased by 66.2%.
Cele had said more than 5 700 people were killed in the first three months of the year. This was 2 294 more people compared to the same period in the last financial year.
Cele had raised concerns about the increase in the murders and said they will target areas that are most affected.
However, there was also a spike in rape cases as more than 10 000 rape cases were reported in the first quarter of the year.
This was up 72.4% compared to the same period in the last financial year. This was an increase of 4 201 rape cases reported between April and June this year compared to the same period in the previous financial year.
Cele had said most of the rape cases were reported in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, Delft in the Cape metro and Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape.
POLITICAL BUREAU