Unfortunately South Africa’s murder rate continues to increase with a shocking total of 17,805 murders committed from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015, according to the national crime statistics which were released today. That works out to an average of almost 49 people per day.

In comparison, the total number of people murdered in Australia, according to BBC News, has steadily declined each year with latest statistics for 2011-2012 revealing a total of 272 homicides. Australia’s population (23.9 million) is just over half of South Africa’s 54 million.

The figure for England and Wales (with a population greater than South Africa’s at 56 million) was 515 homicides during 2014 according to the Office for National Statistics, the lowest number since 1977. That’s 515 compared to our 17,805.

Even in the USA, a country renowned for gun crime and with roughly five times the population of South Africa at 320 million – less people were murdered during the whole of 2013. In stats released by the FBI, there were an estimated 14,196 murders in the United States during 2013.

In Gauteng, alone there were a reported 3,671 murders. Although London has a reputation for an increase in crime, its murder rate has actually decreased over the years with less than 100 deliberately killed during the whole of 2014. The BBC reported that police officers in the UK credit “intelligence-led policing and early medical intervention” to the steady improvement. In Sydney, last year’s coffee shop siege created shock waves for Australians in a country where during the whole of 2012 there were only 40 gun murders nationwide.

Today’s latest figures mean South Africa’s murder record remains dramatically higher compared to many South African expat destinations as those stats reported by the World Bank in 2011 where the number of intentional murders per 100,000 was: 1 for the UK, New Zealand and Australia; 2 for Canada, 5 for the USA…and 30 for South Africa. (In more recent figures, Africa Check confirms that the murder rates in the USA in 2013 was 3.8 murders compared to South Africa’s 31.9.)

South Africa has almost halved its murder rate since the mid-90s when it was 59.9.

A breakdown of the South African murder stats

Today’s statistics were completed in conjunction with Statistics South Africa, and released by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko, Deputy Police Minister Makhotso Sotyu, the National Commissioner General Riah Phiyega as well as some MECs responsible for Policing and Provincial Commissioners during a sitting of the Police Portfolio Committee in Parliament.

The data indicates that the murder rate has increased for the third year in a row this financial year. Incidents of murder increased by 4.6% in the 2014/15 financial year when compared to the previous year.

This means 782 more murders were committed in South African compared to the 2013/14 financial year.

Previously, incidents of murder had increased from 16,213 murders in 2012/13 to 17,023 in 2013/14. This comes on the back of a similar increase in 2011/12 which stood at 15,554.

Murder is an important crime to monitor because it is regarded as a benchmark indicator of a country’s safety and security.

The number of murders increased in all provinces except for the Northern Cape where it decreased.

KwaZulu-Natal had the most murder incidents which went up from 3,616 in 2013/14 to 3,810 in 2014/15.

[quote_center]”This number of deaths is what one would expect from a country at war. This is catastrophic.” – DA MP[/quote_center]

This was followed by Gauteng with 346 more murders than the last reporting year. The total number of murders in Gauteng stood at 3,671. The Western Cape had 3,186 murder incidents, the Eastern Cape had 3,321. There were 943 murders in the Free State in 2014/15 as compared to 942 in 2013/14. In North West 853 murders were committed which is up from 824.

Murders decreased in the Northern Cape from 437 in 2013/14 to 413 this year.

Attempted murder is also up by 3.2% nationally, with Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape leading with the highest number of reported attempted murders.

What’s the cause?

Minister Nhleko said as the police they are worried about this trend. However, the data also reflects social circumstances.

“The issue of crime statistics is not simply about the numbers…they are [a reflection] of the state of the society… it’s who we are as a society,” he said, adding that the country continues to have a violent and aggressive feature in its social outlook.

He said alcohol and drugs were major contributors to social and violent troubles. There is a “causal link” between alcohol and drug consumption and violent crime.

Police confiscated about 1.7 billion litres of alcohol in the reporting period.

Another contributing factor, Minister Nhleko said, was inequality and the number of illegal firearms which are in the wrong hands despite police destroying thousands from time to time.

Social mobilisation was needed in order to address the incidents of murder he said.

Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko said the national crime statistics for South Africa reveal a pressing need to deal with social circumstances at a multi-disciplinary level across society.

In a statement released by opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard, she said: “This number of deaths is what one would expect from a country at war. This is catastrophic.”

She added that today’s presentation meant “we now have confirmation of what many South Africans have felt in their everyday lives: Crime is getting worse.”

MP Kohler also addressed the ommission of attention to farm deaths, saying “again this year there is no reporting of rural murders that have been completely neglected by the national government. Recent stats taken from other entities place the body count of people killed in rural areas at 67 with 278 attacks as at 2014 and 9 deaths and 23 attacks at February 2015 alone. We have reason to believe that this number will increase substantially by the end of the reporting cycle yet it is not reflected anywhere in the government’s stats.”

Other South African Crime Statistics in Brief

The following figures were also released today:

Contact crimes (crimes against the person) have decreased by 17.6 % over the last ten years, but there has been an increase of 0.9 % in the 2014/15 financial year.

Property related crimes went down by 0.8%.

Other serious crime – including theft, commercial crime like fraud and shop lifting – went down by 2.2%.

Attempted murder is up by 3.2%.

Aggravated robbery is up by 8.5%.

Car hijackings is up by 14.2%. Truck hijackings is up by almost 30%.

Drug-related crime is up by 2.4% since last year and by 182% since 2004/2005. (The DA says this may be due to “the disastrous Selebi-era disbandment of specialised crime units such as the Narcotics Bureau in 2003”.)

While crimes against women and children remained a thorn in the side of society, statistics showed that there has been a decrease in crimes under this category. Sexual offences are down by 5.4% (although the DA attributes this to victims’ distrust and reluctance to report sexual crimes to SAPS).

Statistics also showed that there was an influx of undocumented immigrants, while there was a resurgence in taxi violence.

83.4% of serious crimes that were reported by members of the community led to the arrests and charging of 1,795,947 persons, of which 4,808 were arrested by elite crime fighting unit the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).

1,043 life sentences were imposed on 739 suspects, while 686 police were arrested for various types of crimes in 2014/15.

Police recovered 36,186 vehicles that were reported lost or stolen.

Thank you to those South African Police officers who risk their lives to protect ours…

ANC Chief Whip Phumelele Stone Sizani said “the crime statistics also show that our police service remains highly responsive to crimes reported by communities” and commended “the thousands of members of our police service, who despite great challenges and risks associate with policing, continue to serve with commitment to protect our people.”

Partly sourced from SAnews.gov.za

MORE INFO

World Bank:
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5

FBI:
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/november/crime-statistics-for-2013-released/crime-statistics-for-2013-released

UK Office for National Statistics:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Crime+and+Justice