Cape Town –The reported serious crimes recorded during the second quarter of the financial year was lower than the same period last year, being less than 1% which translates to 1 758 fewer such crimes.
Briefing the police portfolio committee on Friday, Major-General Norman Sekhukune noted that August recorded 5 109 increases, while both July and September showed decreases of 2 066 and 4 801, respectively.
Sekhukune said overall South Africa recorded 35 0519 serious crimes during the period. The provinces that showed decreases in serious crimes were the Eastern Cape with 899 cases, Gauteng recording 1 518, Mpumalanga 1 079, Northern Cape 68, and Western Cape 4 353.
The four provinces that recorded increases were Free State with 1 180 cases, KwaZulu-Natal with 4 140, Limpopo 652, and North West 187.
Sekhukune said the top 30 police stations featured in serious crimes were found in Gauteng with 10, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape with eight each, and one each in Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West. Of the top 30 police stations, those in the top 10 included Durban Central, Johannesburg Central, Honeydew, Mitchells Plain, Park Road, Pinetown, Phoenix, Rustenburg, Cape Town Central and Empangeni.
Meanwhile, contact crimes had seen a 1% increase, translating to 1 324 cases, bringing the number to 137 145. Sekhukune said there were 2 140 decreases in July, 6 020 increases in August and 2 356 decreases in September.
“What led to the whole decrease in July and September are minimal to the increases that occurred in August, hence the overall increase in contact crimes for the whole of South Africa,” he said.
The decreases were five in Mpumalanga, and 1 562 in the Western Cape, while the rest of the provinces had increases.The increases were as follows: Eastern Cape 195, Free State 450, Gauteng 57, KwaZulu-Natal 1 310, Limpopo 380, North West 443, and Northern Cape 47.
Half of the top 30 police stations in this category of crime are found in Gauteng, while the Western Cape has eight, and KwaZulu-Natal has seven.The top 10 with the highest incidents recorded include Nyanga, Johannesburg Central, Temba, Plessislaer, Alexandra, Delft, Mfuleni, Tembisa, Inanda and Mamelodi East.
However, there were decreases in the number of cases in Inanda, Umlazi, Mitchells Plain, Kraaifontein, Hillbrow, Ivory Park, Honeydew, Empangeni and Moroka, said Sekhukune.
Political Bureau