The increase in violent robberies at homes and business premises was a matter of great concern, President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Friday.
"The scourge of crime remains a major source of insecurity for South Africans," he said in his State of the Nation address.
Apprehension about the possibility of violent attack was a daily experience in both poor and affluent neighbourhoods.
"Of course, the overall crime rate, having peaked in 2002, has consistently declined. All kinds of statistics can be cited to attest to this.
"But we do know that the reduction has not been fast enough, not even at the seven to 10 percent rate that we set ourselves for various categories of contact crime.
"The fact that incidents of violent robberies in households and businesses have been on the increase; and crimes against women and children have not abated in any significant measure, is a matter of great concern," Motlanthe said.
So too was corruption, he said.
"Within public and private institutions, the possibility of nefarious schemes siphoning off resources through corruption is always a source of great concern."
The increase in some crime levels pointed to various weaknesses within the criminal justice system.
"It points to systemic weaknesses in the criminal justice system, from investigation of crimes to rehabilitation of offenders it points to weaknesses in the efficiency of the court system, both in terms of technical and other infrastructure and management."
These were issues that the current comprehensive revamp of the criminal justice system had started to address.
"Yet, in being brutally self-critical, we should not lose sight of the fact that what we are assessing is a system that enjoys, by far, better legitimacy than ever experienced in our country.
"This is because of the transformation these institutions have undergone, in terms of their doctrines based on a human rights culture, their demographic composition, and their systems of accountability.
"But let us not delude ourselves: as with the rest of our social life, such transformation is still at its nascent stages. We still have a long way to go," Motlanthe said. - Sapa