The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Mr Ian Cameron, is of the view that the dire first-quarter (1 April to 30 June 2024) crime statistics point to the need to urgently capacitate the detective and crime intelligence services as a tool to reverse the scourge of crime in South Africa.

Today, the Minister of Police released statistics that revealed a worrying general upwards trajectory of crime. The statistics confirm the recently released 2023/24 Governance, Public Safety, and Justice Survey by Statistics South Africa that South Africans are not and do not feel safe. “One of the contributing factors to an unsafe country is the inability to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of crime. With enhanced training and capacitation of detectives, crimes will be effectively investigated and perpetrators will be prosecuted,” Mr Cameron said.

The portfolio committee has previously emphasised its belief that South Africa continues to rely heavily on reactive policing due to inadequate intelligence services. “We will not fight crime effectively with a limping intelligence service that is incapable to gather information and prevent crimes from happening,” Mr Cameron emphasised.

While the committee welcomed the steps to increase personnel within the ranks of the South African Police Service (SAPS), Mr Cameron cautioned that more boots on the ground without investigative capacity will render the increase in police officers pointless.

For the first quarter of 2024, the released statistics indicate a worrying increase in murders, especially in the Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape. “The fact that the top 30 stations with the highest murder cases were in the four provinces, which calls for urgent capacity augmentation in those provinces to investigate and convict perpetrators in those provinces. Furthermore, consideration of devolved powers to local governments will assist the SAPS to investigate those incidents of murder, such as in the City of Cape Town which recorded 234 gang related murders for the quarter,” Mr Cameron said.

The 4th quarter also indicated a 3.9% increase in murder and 19.7% increase in attempted murder. Similar to the first-quarter crime statistics, the top 30 stations with high murder rates were in Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. “It is necessary for these provinces to detail how they will turn around this dire state of affairs as it relates to murder,” Mr Cameron maintained. “It is patently unacceptable that on average at least three people are murdered per hour in South Africa and three kids are murdered in the country per day. The 1st quarter stats also highlight that there was a 7.9% increase in murder of women, 16% in attempted murder and 6.9% in assault with grievous bodily harm. Effective prosecution of these crimes is essential to enhance deterrence against murder and contact crime,” Mr Cameron emphasised.

The 15% increase in attempted murder and 6% increase in assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm is also worrying. While the Chairperson welcomes the 10.5% decrease in sexual assault cases reported, the high number of rape cases reported remains a deep concern, with 9 309 cases reported, an increase of 0.6%. Gender-based violence continues to be a scourge and requires society-centred approaches to reverse, Mr Cameron said.

The Chairperson also highlighted concern with the marked increase in contact crimes over the two quarters, with 171 707 crimes reported in the fourth quarter, an increase of 4.6%. SAPS recorded 153 637 contact crimes during the first quarter of this financial year, an increase of 2.6% in comparison to the same period last year.

Furthermore, it is worrying that the prevalence of illegal firearms on South Africa’s streets continues unabated. The SAPS must heighten strategies to remove illegal firearms from our streets as a means of eliminating illegal firearms, which continue to be the weapon of choice in carrying out crime.

Mr Cameron remains concerned about the continuing murder of members of the SAPS. The crime statistics highlighted that 21 police officers were killed during the quarter. “We remain concerned that the people in the service of protecting South Africans are maimed on a daily basis. This is a direct affront to the rule of law and measures are needed to urgently resolve this problem,” said Mr Cameron said.

The Chairperson also welcomed the Minister’s commitment to deal with the rise in extortion by deploying specialised units. Nonetheless, the Chairperson called for closer collaboration within the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster with the aim of establishing a special court to urgently prosecute perpetrators.

To overturn the scourge of specific crimes, Mr Cameron called for interventions that focus on capacitation of specialised units to ensure that specific areas of concern are addressed systematically.

The Chairperson acknowledged the Minster’s assurance that they are revising strategies to intensify the fight against crime by augmenting existing strategies such as Operation Shanela. The committee believes it is important to revitalise collaboration with communities to build the trust necessary to enable information-sharing and reporting of crime.

In line with this, the committee has resolved to ensure that adequate funding is appropriated to enable the SAPS to better capacitate its ranks, especially the detectives and intelligence services.

The committee resolved during its scheduled meeting on Wednesday, 28 August, to schedule an intensive meeting to further interrogate the statistics and find workable short-, medium- and long-term strategies to defeat the scourge of crime.