Gauteng crime figures ‘offer a ray of hope’

Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Gen Elias Mawela says the reduction in contact crime has given encouragement to the effort of fighting overall crime. 

Mawela made this remark during a presentation of crimes that occurred in the province during the fourth quarter of the SAPS financial year (1 January 2023 to March 31). 

“We might not have reduced overall crime; however, we are pleased with the reduction in some of the contact crimes, which indicates that we are slowly moving towards the desired outcomes of reducing overall crime in the province,” he said. 

As contact crime remains a major contributor to the overall crime statistics, Mawela said there was reduction in sexual offences, assault with intent to do grevious bodily harm (GBH) and robbery with aggravating circumstances. 

“Although we have made a slight reduction on robbery with aggravating circumstances, it is still a concern in that people are easily robbed through the online shopping scams and e-hailing services,” Mawela said. 

The fourth quarter saw 15,920 arrests with assault GBH leading the pack with 6,420 arrests and 5,570 people being nabbed for common assaults. The arrests for sexual offences were 1,038 and 526 for murder. 

In the previous quarter, contact crimes against women had increased across three categories, with attempted murder recording 21.5% (263). He said 71 more murders were reported, a 7.9% increase, while assault GBH went up by 0.7% (107). 

“The reduction in sexual offences may be attributed to family violence, child protection and sexual offences and social crime prevention supported by corporate communication and liaison conducting focused crime awareness campaigns at schools, tertiary institutions, churches and taxi ranks, among other places,” he said.