According to the Victims of Crime Survey released by Statistics South Africa in Pretoria on Tuesday‚ households rated burglary and home robbery as the most common and most feared types of crime.
Dr Pali Lehohla‚ the Statistician-General‚ said this fear was in agreement with the actual count of households' experience of crime‚ where burglary and home robbery also emerged as the most prevalent household crimes.
The survey also showed a decline in society’s faith in the police and courts between 2011 and 2015/16.
The results of the survey are an indictment on the police‚ showing that the level of satisfaction with police declined from an estimated 64.2% in 2011 to 58.8% in 2015/16.
Western Cape was the worst province when it comes to society's trust in the police‚ with the level of satisfaction with the police decreasing from 71‚3% in 2011 to 57‚1% in 2015/16.
The level of despondency in society when it comes to police's ability to combat or investigate crime is palpable from the results of the survey‚ with people believing that it was pointless to report crime as police could do nothing or they just won't do anything about it.
“This is an indictment‚ that people have lost hope in what police could do about crime‚” Lehohla said.
The survey also provides evidence of a decline in police visibility during the last five years.
Almost half (41%) of South Africans believe that crime had increased in their areas‚ with the Western Cape again leading the pack at 52‚2%‚ followed by Free State at 48‚0% and North West at 47‚4%.
On a more positive note‚ Gauteng (33.6%) and KwaZulu-Natal ( 33.1%) had the highest percentage of households who felt that violent crime had decreased over the three years under review.
- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
