Cape Town - Police Minister Bheki Cele has announced that murder has gone up in the first three months of the year with 4 976 people murdered.
At the time same, Cele said rape cases decreased by 4% between January and March this year.
However, Cele said this showed that the country needed to intensify the battle against crime.
On Friday, Cele revealed the crime statistics for the first quarter of 2021.
He said murder cases increased by 8.4% during this period.
He said he was concerned that the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal showed a double digit increases in murder cases.
The murder cases in the two provinces was above 21%.
Cele also said it was shameful that sexual violence against women continued to be a problem. This is despite the decrease in the number of sexual violence in the first three months.
“Sexual violence meted out against women in this country is simply shameful,” said Cele.
He said 9 518 were raped between January and March this year. However, rape cases declined by 4%.
He said 4 130 cases of rape took place in the homes of the victims or the alleged perpetrators.
He said Lusikisiki overtook Inanda as the rape capital of the country with more cases reported in that town.