A total of 17,805 people were killed in South Africa between April 1 2014 and March 31 2015, the country’s crime statistics, released on Tuesday, showed.
The murder rate rose again by 4.6% from 2013/14 to 2014/15 – meaning 782 more people were killed than the previous year.
Briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on police, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega revealed that 49 of the murders in the past financial year were committed by children, while 884 of the killings were perpetrated by youths, aged between 18 and 25.
Phiyega said they took a closer look at the murder rate in KwaZulu-Natal as a case study.
“During the reporting period, we found that 61% of the murders occurred over weekends, and 40 percent between 6pm and 12pm [in KwaZulu-Natal],” Phiyega said.
“It is also disturbing to note, on average we record 11 murders per day, but 55 murders were reported on Christmas day, and 54 murders on New Years Day [in KwaZulu-Natal].”
Attempted murder was up 3.2% nationally.
Both murder and attempted murder, along with assault and robbery with aggravating circumstances, fall in the “contact crimes” category. Earlier police minister Nathi Nhleko revealed contact crimes as a whole were up 0.9%.
Contact-related crimes, which include arson and malicious damage to property, rose by 1.9%.
Property-related crimes saw a downward trend, decreasing 0.8%, to 30.8%.
Other serious crimes were down 2.2%- 27.8%.
Firearms
There was currently 10 million firearms obtained legally circulating in South Africa, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega said on Tuesday.
Phiyega touched on the large amount of firearms in the hands of South African businesses and individuals.
“There are currently 5.3 million official firearms obtained in terms of the Firearms and Ammunition Act. There are also 4.4 million firearms in terms of the Firearms Control Act. We talking a cool ten million close of firearms circulating in the country,” she said.
According to official records, these firearms are owned by 2.4 million people.
In the last three financial years, police issued 296,315 individual and business firearm licences.
Over the same period, 108,257 firearms were destroyed by police.
Drugs
South Africa was no longer a mere transit point for drug circulation but had graduated to a new level in terms of making and using narcotics.
South Africa has graduated to a manufacturer, consumer, and transit state.
Furthermore, in 2014, 237 South Africans were arrested elsewhere in the world as drug mules.
Phiyega also noted that Interpol had reported “about 300 drug couriers en-route to South Africa” in the period 2014/15.
Protests
Phiyega, says there's been a significant growth in the service delivery protests in the past financial year.
Phiyega said that their figures showed that the number of violent service delivery protests had grown from 1 907 to 2 289.
Phiyega says violent service delivery protests often result in other crimes like assault, malicious damage to property, among others.
Source: ANA
