Murder, rape, attempted murder, carjackings, and a myriad of other crimes are not the only ones South Africans should be cognisant of on a daily basis, often less thought about, but equally frightening crimes like kidnappings have also been highlighted this week.
This is when Eastern Cape Community Safety MEC Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe on Monday released the final quarterly crime statistics for the province, from January until the end of March 2022.
The statistics revealed the usual culprits like murder and the number of sexual offences, including rape and sexual assault, increased by 11.4% and 10.2%, respectively, during the fourth quarter of the 2021/22 financial year in the Eastern Cape.
There had also been a big jump in carjackings which rose 26.5%, but Bhisho reported a slight drop in robberies at residential premises during the period under review.
However, looking closer at the figures was an increasingly worrying phenomenon of kidnappings.
The statistics also showed a staggering 118 kidnappings in the Eastern Cape during the period under review, an increase of 49 compared to the previous quarter.
Kidnapping and crime analyst at the Institute for Security Studies, Lizette Lancaster, said while that increase is worrisome, provinces like Gauteng had much more to worry about.
“In some provinces, it’s much more pronounced, like in Gauteng, there was a 200% increase [in kidnappings since 2017]. It’s less for the Western Cape and Eastern Cape,” said Lancaster.
“But, what we know is that many of these kidnappings are driven by hijackings and other kinds of armed robberies.”
She said while still prevalent, some kidnappings for ransom go unreported.
“The kidnappings for extortion and ransom, do make the headlines, but they are relatively a small proportion that gets reported to the police. Of course, many are not reported to the police because of the fear that the victims might be harmed.
Lancaster has also cautioned parents to be careful of what they post of their children on social media.
She said where children were concerned, most were kept as leverage.
“It’s fairly rare, but one must be careful what you post on social media, especially about your children, and that you should also be careful to who you communicate your financial wealth,” Lancaster advised.
“Even if it’s just a couple of thousand [of Rand] that you might have inherited or come into.”
