Crime Stats: SA’s three rape hot spots

Police Minister Bheki Cele released the crime statistics for Q1 2021/2022 on Friday, with a significant increase in cases reported across several crime categories. Picture: GCIS

Police Minister Bheki Cele released the crime statistics for Q1 2021/2022 on Friday, with a significant increase in cases reported across several crime categories. Picture: GCIS

Published Aug 20, 2021

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Cape Town – The Inanda police station in KwaZulu-Natal, Delft in the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape’s Lusikisiki police stations have recorded the highest incidents of rape.

A total of 10 006 people were raped in the country between April and June 2021, Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Friday on releasing the crime statistics for Q1 2021/2022, with a significant increase in cases reported across several crime categories.

This is an increase of 4 201 cases, amounting to a 72.4% increase, compared to the ’’skewed’’ previous reporting period. This number drops to 2.8% if comparison was made to the ’’normal’’ period prior to lockdown, Cele said.

“The double-digit increase in most crime categories is attributed to the impact of the adjusted lockdown levels and distorted crime trends,” said Cele.

“While we will not sweep the high and unnatural figures under the carpet, we will instead bring to the fore a holistic picture of comparing the 2021/2022 Q1 crime figures to a ‘normal period’ two years ago where there was no lockdown.”

A sample of 5 439 rape cases revealed that 3 766 of the rape incidents took place at the home of the victim or the home of the rapist, while 487 rape cases were domestic violence-related.

The 47.1% increase recorded for sexual offences, when compared to the previous skewed reporting period, is revised to 5.0% if compared to the previous normal period of 2019/2020 financial year, Cele said.

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