Johannesburg – The Police Ministry on Friday reiterated its stance that measures were in place to tackle increasing levels of crime.

This follows the release of the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness report, which analysed the state of tourism in countries around the world.

A part of the report also highlighted the state of safety of each of the 136 participating countries and ranked them from most safe to least safe.

South Africa ranked at 120, placing it in the bottom 20 of the Safety and Security list. Other African countries placed included at the bottom of the list were the Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Mali.

Pitted right at the bottom is Colombia, ranking 136 on the list.

Commenting after the release of the list was Police Ministry spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga, who reiterated Minister Fikile Mbalula’s stance that the ministry had plans in place to tackle crime.

“There are definitely plans in place. The minister made mention of intelligence-led policing, which aims to preempt crimes before they take place,” he said.

Also mentioned, Mhaga added, was a six-point plan that will assist victims better report crimes against them at the nearest police station.

One of the points was ensuring that victims reporting crimes are able to do so in private and away from prying eyes.

“The minister also mentioned plans to stabilise the leadership of SAPS and included in this is the appointment of a permanent national police commissioner,” he said.

The WEF report comes a few months after the release of the crime statistics by the police, which highlighted crime trends between the period covering April to December 2016.

The statistics showed that the country’s murder rate dropped for the first three quarters of the 2016/17 financial year compared to the same period last year and contact crimes decrease by 5.3% during the same period.

Meanwhile, there was an increase of 14.3% in carjackings, business robberies and robberies at private residences.