Cape Town - Police Minister Bheki Cele says the decline in the crime statistics during the first quarter of the year has been due to the hard lockdown.
But he said he did not lose sight of the work done by the police.
This was after Cele said violent crimes including murders, attempted murders and robberies dropped by 37.4% between April and June this year.
The number of rape cases also dropped because of the hard lockdown that was implemented by the government.
Cele said there were 53 891 less violent crimes in the country. Murder was down by over 1 000 cases and sexual offences were down by 4 798 compared to the same period last year.
He said the hard lockdown had played a role, and it was unfortunate they start reporting on quarterly crime statistics shortly after the country went into lockdown.
"We are very much aware this is not a true picture,' said Cele, adding that this was a crime holiday period in the country.
This has never been seen before where there has been such a decline in crime statistics.
The country implemented Level 5 in March when the first cases of Covid-19 were reported and this was later dropped to Level 3.
The crime holiday had also seen a drop in the number of people being killed and injured and the bed space was freed up in hospitals.
Cele said this was "a never seen before crime holiday" in the country.
But after the lifting of the alcohol ban there was an upsurge in trauma cases in hospitals.
Political Bureau