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Crime & Accidents News
24 August 2020

North West – The national crime statistics for 2019/20 have been published. This was done ahead of the usual date in September, as the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) plans to release the statistics every quarter going forward.

There has been a decrease in contact related crimes, property-related crimes and other serious crimes. However, murders remain high with a 1.4% increase and sexual offences have increased with 1.7%. During 2019/2020, a staggering 21,325 murders were reported, indicating that around 58 people are murdered in the country every day. This shows an increase of 303 cases compared to the 21,022 in 2018/2019.

In his address on Friday 31 July, police minister general Bheki Cele said: “In contact crimes, particularly murder, we have recorded a trend of halving the case increase in the past three years. In 2017/18 the case difference was 1,320. In 2018/19 the case difference was 686. In 2019/20 we have recorded a case difference of 303.”

Sexual offences have become a growing concern in all communities. A total of 53,293 sexual offence cases were reported in 2019/2020. “This category of crime has terrorised most households and communities as most of these crimes happen behind closed doors,” Cele added.

He also noted that it is troubling that educational institutions are becoming hotbeds for sexual violence, 380 cases of rape were reported at either schools, universities, colleges, or day-care facilities.

In North West, there has been a significant decrease of 10,1% in murder cases. In 2019/2020, 961 murder cases were reported compared to the 864 in 2018/2019. Sexual offences decreased with 4,9% with a total of 3,824 reported cases compared to the 4,021 of the previous year.

For more information regarding the national crime statistics, visit https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.php.

National crime statistics 2019/2020 summary.
North West crime statistics 2019/2020 summary.

 

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