The National Prosecution Services in the Eastern Cape Division says its recorded notable successes in the 2016/2017 financial year.
Conviction rates in all but one category, those being trio crimes, had exceeded set targets even though prosecutors still achieved a 76 percent success rate.
According to the Provincial Director of Public Prosecutions for the Eastern Cape Division, advocate Lungisile Mahlati, there were 114 prosecutions for so-called trio crimes, which include house and business robbery and vehicle hijackings.
He said the targetted conviction rate for trio crimes is 85 percent.
Mahlati says they've also achieved a 71 percent conviction rate in respect of the 466 sexual offences cases heard, above the 69 percent norm.
He told Algoa FM News that prosecutors in his division had done pretty well against the targets set.
He says in the 2016/2017 financial year they exceeded their target by finalising more cases than they had set out for themselves. Mahlati says, therefore, they increased their target for the 2017/2018 financial year.
Advocate Mahlati says the Eastern Cape Division of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions achieved a 91 percent conviction rate in the High Court, 76 percent in regional courts and 92 percent conviction rates in district courts, all exceeding set targets.
He says they prosecuted 33 organised crime cases with a 100 percent conviction rate while 17 environmental cases were also successfully prosecuted.
Mahlati says that there was also one public violence case related to student protest at Rhodes University for which there was also a successful conviction.
He says a key challenge for this year is dealing with the gang violence in Port Elizabeth's Northern Areas and sexual offences against women, children, the elderly and mentally disabled. Mahlati says it does not mean that other crimes will be neglected.
