Murder on the rise in SA: Mthethwa

The number of murders in South Africa increased by 0.6 percent over the past financial year, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said.

Speaking at the release of the 2012/13 crime statistics in Pretoria, he said the murder rate had previously decreased by 16.6 percent over the past four years, and by 27.2 percent over the past nine years.

"Since 1994, we have been making steady progress in the fight against crime.

"We will work double hard to ensure this slight increase is re-routed to the downward trends that we experienced over the past nine years," he said.

There was also a 6.5 percent increase in attempted murder in the financial year under review.

This was in contrast to the decrease in attempted murder by 16.8 percent over the past four years and 51.7 percent over the past nine years.

Mthethwa highlighted the causes for the increases by province.

These included cases of domestic violence and alcohol-related arguments near taverns in the Eastern Cape and labour unrest in the mining sector in the North West.