World News | Rise of Violent Crime Unacceptable: S Africa Police Minister Cele
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Rise in the number of murder, assault and kidnapping cases in South Africa in the first quarter of this year is unacceptable, Police Minister Bheki Cele has said, as he called for an impartial probe to deal with the growing incidents of violent crime in the country.
Johannesburg, Jun 5 (PTI) Rise in the number of murder, assault and kidnapping cases in South Africa in the first quarter of this year is unacceptable, Police Minister Bheki Cele has said, as he called for an impartial probe to deal with the growing incidents of violent crime in the country.
Releasing the official statistics on Friday, Cele said the figures served as a call of action for government, business, NGOs, civil society and communities to come on board in the fight against crime.
“The first three months of 2022 have unfortunately been marred by more murders, more sexual violence, and more assaults, compared to the same time period in the previous year. All in all, these statistics don't give us a good picture,” he said.
“The first three months of this year were violent, brutal and unsafe for many South Africans,” he added, citing the impact of the current socio-economy on crime levels.
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“The triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment, increasingly encouraged opportunistic criminal behaviour,” Cele said, as he mentioned that police had made some gains and intercepted greedy criminal syndicates involved in extortion, kidnapping and cash-in-transit heists, and drugs smuggling.
He conceded though that their collective actions have not yielded the expected results.
“In the three months of reporting, a 22.2 per cent increase in the murder was recorded, with 1,107 more people killed in South Africa between January and March compared to the same period in 2021. Out of the 6,083 people killed in the country, 898 of them were women and 306 were children under the age of 17 years. Alarmingly, the murder of children recorded a 37.2 per cent increase in the period of reporting,” Cele said.
The minister said that 10,818 people were raped in South Africa; assaults involving grievous bodily harm showed a “drastic” increase of 6,575 more cases reported during this period, and 3,306 kidnapping cases were opened with the police.
“This crime trend (of kidnapping) has shown a sharp increase with over 1,700 more cases reported to the police compared to the same comparative period,” he said.
More than half of the kidnapping cases took place in the economic hub of Gauteng province, where the issue has become a major concern, especially to Indian-origin South African businessmen who have fallen victim to it.
“Honestly, no answer justifies these dismal figures but we all agreed, that all provinces, districts, clusters and stations need to do things differently if indeed we want to see desired outcomes,” Cele said.
He urged senior officers to implement a range of corrective actions, including grooting out corrupt policemen and improving working conditions for those officers committed to serving the community.
“In other words, creating safer communities through effective community policing, is a matter of urgency. The South African Police Service (SAPS) can no longer afford to pay lip service but must introduce accountability at stations if we are to truly serve and protect this nation,” Cele said.
“It is a fact that the SAPS has thousands of hard-working and dedicated officers who on a daily basis, put their lives at risk in the execution of their duties. Unfortunately, there are police officers that are failing communities.
“If we are serious about rebuilding community relations, we must clean house! Vetting and monitoring of members have to be speedily undertaken. The SAPS cannot be a haven for criminals disguised as officers of the law. Such behaviour puts policing on the back foot and further erodes the trust between communities and police,” the minister said.
Cele called on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, an impartial investigating and oversight body that is committed to justice and acting in the public interest, to deal with police officers who fail SAPS and ultimately fail the nation.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)