Only an honest and professional police service will help South Africa turn the tide against violent crimes.

This is according to DA leader in Gauteng John Moodey who was reacting to crime statistics released by the South African Police Service in Parliament on Thursday.

The stats showed that a total of 21,022 people were murdered in South Africa between April 1 2018, and March 31 this year. Attempted murders increased by  4.1%  and more than 700 murders were committed by children.

Murders in Gauteng increased by 262 murder to 4,495 and rape has increased by 355 cases from 8,062 to 8,417;

Moodey said people of Gauteng had no confidence in the police whose job was to protect them.

“Residents of Gauteng see the police as corrupt, incompetent and uncaring. People are becoming increasingly reluctant to report crime because of their lack of trust in the police. House burglaries and muggings are on the increase and people are scared to leave their homes,” he said.

Moodey described the rising levels of crime as unacceptable while the police were under-resourced.

“This goes much further than putting criminals behind bars. It requires the root causes of this social and moral decay to be addressed and bold leadership to make effective decisions.”

He added that the gender-based violence had to be tackled through dedicated programmes for victims, return of specialised units and the prosecution of corrupt police.

Sexual offences have increased by 4.6% to 52,420 cases recorded in the 2018/19 reporting period, up from the 50,108 cases recorded the previous year.

Gauteng, which had the most  recorded cases, saw a 6.3% hike, as did KZN.

However, the provinces with the highest percentage increases in sexual offences were Mpumalanga, with an 8.5% rise (from 3,198 to 3,470 cases), and the Eastern Cape, with a 7.9% spike, reflecting a rise in the number of cases from 8,094 to 8,731.

Rape also increased, by 3.9%, from 40,035 cases in 2017/18 to 41,583 in 2018/19.

In Gauteng, 6,743 women opened rape cases, followed by 5,895 in KwaZulu-Natal and 5,986 in the Eastern Cape. Women between the ages of 20 and 29 opened the most rape cases.

Girls aged between 10 and 19 reported 6,852 rape cases in the past statistical period.

Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal recorded the most rape cases of any single police station (338 cases), followed by Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape (280 cases) and Thohoyandou in Limpopo (268 cases).