Johannesburg - Gauteng Commissioner of Police Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela has revealed that the province had a high incidence of murder between October and December last year
Mawela made these revelations when he released the provincial crime statistics for the third quarter – October to December.
“During the period under review, 243 more people were killed in Gauteng, which reflects an increase of 18.3%. This is the highest increase in the last five years. Gauteng is the second province with the highest number of cases of murder during the period under review and this is mainly due to the size of the population.
“However, when we look at other provinces’ murder rates to ensure a fair comparison among them as expressed in the number of people killed per 100 000 of the population, Gauteng’s murder rate is at 10.3 per 100 000 population which is lower than the other three provinces,” Mawela said.
Out of 1 570 of the people who were killed, 189 were women while 37 of them were children. A total of 41 cases of murders registered during the same period were related to domestic violence. Of these, 23 were women and 18 were men.
He said from the sample of 1 280 cases, the top three contributors established of the general increase of murder were arguments and misunderstandings (not related to domestic violence) by 112 cases, followed by robberies (house, business and street) by 50 cases and vigilantism by 29 cases.
In the farm murders category, we had three incidents in which two of the victims were residents on the farm/smallholding and one was a farm worker.
Five SAPS officers were murdered during this time.
According to the statistics, the top three common places where murders are likely to take place are:
• Public places such as on the street, open fields, parking areas and abandoned buildings (564);
• The home of the victim or the perpetrator (309); and
• Liquor outlets (70)
“Among many other factors that contributed to murder increases in Gauteng is this phenomenon of multiple murders. This is where there is more than one victim murdered in one incident. Gauteng had 18 dockets of murder registered with 50 victims and that has contributed to more accumulated counts of murder during this quarter.
“(For example) in Kagiso, seven people were killed and five injured by a group of armed, balaclava-clad men. This incident happened at a house close to where there was a wedding; consequently, people who attended the wedding were also affected,” he said.
In another incident, in Laudium, the occupants of a vehicle that stopped near an illegal shebeen randomly fired at the patrons. Five people were killed and 12 injured.
“The motives for these shootings are still under investigation,” Mawela said.
He said there was a significant reduction (7.4%) in all three offences (rape, sexual assaults and contact sexual offences) reported under the umbrella sexual offences, 243 counts lower than the same period in 2020/2021.
“This reduction is attributed to all the measures that we have put in place such as enhancing partnerships with communities and NGOs, awareness campaigns, suspect tracing operations coupled with good convictions by our courts.
“These successes are being communicated through all the available channels of the media to serve as a deterrent to those that have intentions to commit rape,” Mawela said.
Political Bureau