Police minister Bheki Cele has decried the number of crimes committed against women.

Releasing the latest crime stats for the period between July and September, Cele said the rate at which women are abused, violated and killed in South Africa remains worrying and unacceptable; many are killed by the people they know, people they love and trust. 

“Over 13,000 women were victims of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm between July and September; 1,277 women were victims of attempted murder; and 989 women were murdered during this reporting period,” Cele said. 

The minister also said more than 10,000 rape cases were opened with the police between July and September this year. 

According to Cele, the majority of the reported rape cases, 62%, occurred at the residence of the victims or perpetrators, while 1,651 of the rapes occurred in public places such as streets, in parks and beaches, and 69 people were raped at abandoned buildings.

According to the crime stats, buses, taxis, trains and other modes of public transport were the third most likely places of occurrence for rape incidents.

Cele said Mpumalanga is the only province that had a decline in reported rape cases.  

Inanda police station in KwaZulu-Natal, Mthatha in the Eastern Cape and Delft in the Western Cape are the three top stations with the highest number of rape cases.

In the three months, Cele said 410 rapists were arrested, of whom 68 have been sentenced to life behind bars. 

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